Biographical dictionary

Born in Cambridge and educated at Emmanuel College. Shortly after obtaining his degree moved to Nottingham where he was attached to the University College for seven years as Lecturer in Natural Sciences and for thirty four years as Professor of Biology. At the same time as carrying out his duties at the College, he also acted as Director of the Nottingham Natural History Museum, and during the forty five years he held this post he was responsible for building up the collections and establishing the Museum's reputation.

Carr was a keen botanist and an ardent entomologist studying the more neglected groups in particular. His greatest claim to fame as an entomologist however was not so much as a collector, but as the compiler of The Invertebrate Fauna of Nottinghamshire, the first part of which containing 618 pages was published in 1916, and the second part containing 287 pages in 1935. The work was started as early as 1893 when Carr published A Contribution to the Geology and Natural History of Nottinghamshire, a small publication, to coincide with a visit of the British Association. In compiling The Invertebrate Fauna he was much assisted by the members of the Nottingham Naturalist's Society, of which he was at one time Honorary Secretary and at another President.

Mick Cooper informs me that there is further information about Carr in Nottingham Museum and Pedersen (2002),119, records letters (1915-1925) from him to C.J.Wainwright in the RESL. FRES 1915 - death. There are obituaries in Ent, 1939, 248 (by A.R.Leivers), and in North West Naturalist, 14, 1939, 81. (MD 1/O2)

Pedersen (2002), 92 records a letter from G.T. Porritt to Sheldon concerning Carter’s death, dated 9 April 1921,  in the RESL. (MD 1/22)

Formed a collection of 1,916 Coleoptera which were given by J.E. Collin to the RSM in 1925 (accession number 1925.103). Carter lived at Hillgarth, Currie, Scotland. (MD 1/O2)

Born in Marlborough, Wiltshire. Educated at Aldenham School and/or Mill Hill School and at Cambridge University. Emigrated to Australia to take up the position of Second Mathematical Master at Sydney Grammar School in 1881. He remained in this position until 1891 when he was appointed Principal of Ascham College in which post he continued until 1914.

In his obituary of Carter in EMM, 76, 1940,159, K.G.Blair recorded that: 'it was not until after his arrival in Australia that he developed an interest in entomology, an interest that was to a large extent spurred on by the enthusiasms of his growing family. Realising from experience the need for revisionary work of what scattered knowledge there was rather than the continued accumulation of long lists of new species, Carter devoted his energies mainly to work of this nature, in the course of it himself describing some hundreds of new species. His revisions of the Australian Tenebrionidae and Buprestidae... as well as of certain groups of the Cerambycidae, and latterly of the Dryopidae and Colydiidae, will long form the basis of all future work on these sections of the Australian fauna'.

Musgrave, A. (1932), lists some fifty or so articles by Carter, and Carter's own Gulliver in the Bush, 1933, provides a vivid account of his collecting trips and of the entomologist friends he made in the course of his work. He also explains that while Carter sold his first beetle collection to the Museum at Melbourne (the National Museum of Victoria) in 1923, he subsequently (1936) presented a collection to the Australian Museum (Sydney), and bequeathed his last collection to what is now the CSIRO, where it formed an important beetle nucleus of the Australian National Collection. There are also many specimens given by him in the NHM.

Musgrave (1932) lists some 50 or so articles by Carter, and Daniels (2004) lists 75, adding a further 7 in joint authorship with E.H. Zeck. Upton (1997) lists over 20 bibliographic references (including obituaries). Gilbert (1977) lists four other obituaries, and Musgrave mentions an entry in Who’s Who in Australia, 1922. (Many thanks to Kim Pullen for information about Carter). (MD 1/O2, 12/06)

Educated at St John’s School, Leatherhead, Surrey and University of Kent where he read
biochemistry. From 1973 to 1977 Carter worked as a clinical biochemist at St George’s Hospital,
Tooting. From 1977 to 1990 he worked as a biology teacher, first at Wycliffe College, Stonehouse,
Gloucestershire, later at Cranleigh School, Cranleigh, Surrey, and finally at Cheltenham College,
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. From 1990 until his death in 2003 Carter was head of Information
Technology at Cheltenham College.

Beetles collected by Carter date from May 1978 until August 1988, and it seems that he
gave up entomology when he took on more time-consuming posts later in his professional career.
Carter was a protégé of Prof. John A. Owen and they made numerous collecting trips together. He
was credited as having helped to collect squirrels’ dreys in Scotland for Owen in Ent Rec, 98, 1986,
219-222.

Carter published very little. He exhibited some rare and interesting beetles new to
Gloucestershire at the BENHS Annual Exhibition on 2 November 1985, including Manda
mandibularis at Hasfield Ham, West Gloucestershire, 30.vi.1985 (Proc Trans Br Ent Nat Hist Soc, 19,
1986, 50). Carter was also a co-author with J.A. Owen et al. of a paper describing Panspaeus
guttatus new to Britain (EMM, 121, 1985, 91-95). Carter and Owen privately published A
Numerical List of British Beetles in 1987 (2nd edition).

Carter became the county recorder for Coleoptera with the Gloucestershire Naturalists’ Society
following the departure of David Atty for retirement in Cumbria around 1987. He continued in this role
for about ten years until work pressures made it impossible to continue, when Keith Alexander took
over. He was an active member of the Gloucestershire Invertebrate Group.

Carter was introduced to Andrew Duff via a mutual friend, the late Tom Cairns, soon after Duff started
to study beetles in 1983, and Carter quickly became Duff’s first mentor. After his death Carter’s
collection of 2268 intact specimens, plus an unknown number of specimens already damaged by
Anthrenus, was purchased from his widow by Duff and has now been amalgamated with the latter’s
collection of British Coleoptera.

Carter was listed as a subscriber to The Coleopterist’s Newsletter in October 1985, with his address
given as 165 Leckhampton Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL53 0AD.
(A.G. Duff and K.N.A. Alexander with information from Barbara Carter, 01/2020)

Rector of St. Giles, Norwich. Listed as a subscriber to Denny (1825) but it is not known whether he was a Coleopterist. (MD 1/O2)

Born at Bradley, near Huddersfield. Moved to Bradford in 1875 where he spent the rest of his life. Shortly after taking up residence there he was instrumental in setting up the Bradford Naturalists' Society with John Firth and one or two other friends. Carter was the leading spirit in the Society until his death serving at different times as Secretary and President. He was also a very active member of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, and was at one time President of the entomological section.

George Porritt who wrote Carter’s obituary in EMM, 57, 1921, 67-68, records that his initial interest in entomology was with Lepidoptera; his first publication however, was 'Carabus nitens on Greetland and Rombalds Moors', in the Naturalist (N.S.) 3, 1877-78, 41. A series of notes on other orders mainly Lepidoptera followed until 1897 when he wrote on ‘Carabus arvensis near Bradford’ in the same periodical. This is probably the ‘later’ period of interest in Coleoptera to which Porritt refers noting that Carter did some of his best work in this order. Like his earlier notes, Carter's later publications were mainly on ground beetles, although he did contribute general pieces on Coleoptera and Lepidoptera in the Bradford area in eg. Bradford Science Journal, 2, 1910, 347-348. There are various records of Carter's captures in the VCH of Yorkshire. These include Hymenoptera, Neuroptera and Orthoptera in which he also took an interest. Further information appears in the natural History column he wrote in the Bradford Weekly Telegraph for twenty years.

Apart from the obituary already mentioned there is another in Ent. News, 32, 1921,192. FRES from 1900. (MD 1/O2)

Charlie Barnes tells me that he recently (9/19) acvquired 'a 'hand made' list of beetles with the name 'R.A. Carter' on the first page. It seems to date from the 50s/60s, or at least that's the latest date in the book...I had wondered if it was a cross reference for a specimen collection, but it looks like a tick list'.

A collection with this name sold for £55 at Bigwood, Fine Art Auctioneers, Stratford upon Avon, in September 2017, described in the catalogue as 'a small wooden storage box with a few carded beetles (lacking data), the box carrying the name R.A. Carter, together with a large wood storage box with an expansive collection of British beetles, multiple and mounted with reference numbers and family names, and a further assortment of Foreign beetles including Longhorn varieties (lacking date)'  The boxes are well illustrated. (MD 2/20)

Listed in the Ent. Ann., 1857, at 20 Lower Mosley Street, Manchester with interests in British Lepidoptera and British and foreign Coleoptera. Sharpe (1908),12, lists Carter among 'those early students of the Coleoptera' who left no records of their labours and who 'owed the only education they possessed to that training which Nature herself afforded'. Chalmers-Hunt (1976) records that Carter's world Lepidoptera and Coleoptera collections were sold by Stevens on 15 November 1867. (MD 1/O2)

Lived at Ballough in the isle of Man. Stevens sold his collection of British insects including Coleoptera on 23 April 1912 (Chalmers-Hunt (1976)). Hancock & Pettit (1981) list a collection of Lepidoptera and other insects formed by Mr Cassall mainly in the period 1930-50, belonging to the Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society. Son? (MD 1/O2)