Biographical dictionary
The filter boxes below can be used to find individual entries or groups of entries in the table. You can filter by surname (enter a single letter to see all names beginning with that letter, or enter the first part of a particular surname), or by any part of the full name, or you can filter the main biographical text. You can use the filters in combination, e.g. to search for both a name and some biography text at the same time. Don't forget to click on the Apply button to make your filter work. To remove your filter, delete the text you typed in and then click "Apply" again.
| Name | Dates | Biography | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CUTHBERT, H.K.G. | Published eighteen articles in IN on Coleoptera between 1892 and 1895, three of which were written in conjunction with G.H.Carpenter (Listed in Ryan, O'Conner and Beirne (1984). Most record captures from different localities. He also wrote on other orders including Hymenoptera. (MD 4/02) | ||
| CUTTER, W. | Sold various insects to the HDO including beetles between 1866 and 1875. Smith (1986) p.111 records: Coleoptera and one spider (1867), two small Lucanidae from Burma (1869) and one Meloe and one Cetonia from Madagascar (1875). Mick Cooper informs me that there is further information about Cutter in Nottingham Museum. (MD 4/02, 10/03 ) | ||
| D'URBAN, William Stewart Mitchell | July 1836/7 - 20 January 1934 | Listed in the Ent.Ann. in 1856 as interested in British Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Hymenoptera. His address is given as Newport, near Exeter. By 1857 he had moved to Canada, and in 1859 he presented 243 Canadian Coleoptera to the NHM (59.124). There is correspondence with Roland Trimen, dated from 1860 to 1868, from British Kaffaria and Exeter, in the RESL (Pedersen (2002) p.71). (MD 9/02, 11/09) | |
| D., H.C. | These initials and the date 1908 appear on specimens in the British collection of Coleoptera at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter. (MD 5/02) | ||
| D., M.E. | These initials appear on specimens in the General collection of Coleoptera at Doncaster Museum. Some were taken in 1938. (MD 5/02) | ||
| DAGEN | Gave beetles from Asbyssinia to the NHM in 1902 (ACC 1902.222) | ||
| DALE, Charles William | 1851\2 - 20 February 1906 | Son of James Charles Dale (see below) and brother of Edward Robert Dale (see below). Best known as a Lepidopterist and Dipterist but he also published notes on other insects including Coleoptera, eg. ‘Scarce Coleoptera’, EMM., 26, 1890, p.244 and ‘Psammobius caesus in the Scilly Isles’, ibid., 32, 1896, p.41. Dale inherited his father's estate at Glanville's Wootton in Dorset and did much of his collecting in that county. Eustace Bankes, who wrote his obituary in EMM., 42, 1906, pp.91-92, recorded that ‘His opportunities [for collecting] were exceptionally good, his boyhood and youth being spent at home, and his educational studies making no very severe tax upon his time... When about thirty years of age, Mr Dale entered Oxford University, but after a short residence, spent chiefly at Wadham College, he returned home to Glanvilles Wootton Manor House, near Sherborne, where practically his whole life was spent.’ His rather secluded existence there meant that keeping up with contemporary developments in entomological science was difficult. The writer of his obituary in ERJV., 18, 1906, p.82, noted this and added ‘he loved above all things to indulge in retrospection of things that had been rather than to take a share in the advance of things that are’. Dale recorded in EMM., 39, 1903, p.300, that he had secured both his brother's British insect collection and his father's foreign collection. Much of this material subsequently passed to the HDO where it is maintained separately (see J.C.Dale below). Amongst the more important items listed by Smith (1986) which relate to Charles William are: a ms of insects in C.W's collection not in his father's; a catalogue of Coleoptera dated 1886; a catalogue of British insects added to the Dalean collection between 1864 and 1905; and letters from 38 correspondents. With reference to Dale's collection the following note supplied to EMM., 42, 1906, p.115, by A.E.Eaton is interesting: ‘In view of the practice, pursued for a long period, by the late Mr C.W.Dale, of substituting modern specimens in good condition for old and damaged, it should be remembered that he kept a careful register of dates and localities corresponding with the labels of the specimens in his cabinets, by reference to which the old can often be distinguished from the new, and the specimens authentically named by old authors (correspondents of his father) may sometimes be identified. Regard should also be had to the make of the pins of specimens. He relied upon comparison with specimens and illustrations in forming his own conclusions about species, using hand-lenses that were hardly of sufficient power to guide him in all cases to correct decisions; and he professed himself to be by no means facile at identifying insects by means of only written description’. Dale's library was sold by Stevens on 23 May 1906 (Chalmers-Hunt (1976) p.145) (MD 5/02) | |
| DALE, Edward Robert | d. 13 August 1903 | Younger son of James Charles Dale (see below). Shared the enthusiasm of his brother and father for entomology in his younger days and presumably interested himself, like them, in most orders, although the only specific records of his activities refer to Lepidoptera. Following the death of his wife in 1892 he took up residence in Salisbury where he traded, not very successfully, as an electrical engineer. He patented a number of inventions including an entomological lamp. His collection of British insects passed on his death to his brother, and his other natural history collections, including material inherited from his parents and some foreign insects, were bequeathed to his son and daughter. There is an obituary by his brother in EMM., 39, 1903, pp.255-56. (MD 5/02) | |
| DALE, James Charles | 1792 - 6 February 1872 | Father of Charles William (see above) and Edward Robert (see above). There is a surprising dearth of published information about Dale who was one of the foremost entomologists of his day and who died aged eighty having devoted most of his adult life to entomological pursuits. The existence of a large amount of manuscript and other personal material relating to Dale in the HDO makes this the more surprising. He was the son of wealthy landowners and received his education at Cambridge where he became MA in 1818. Dale was a friend of J.F. Stephens who makes numerous references to him in his Illustrations of British Entomology, 1828-1846, and of John Curtis who refers to him frequently in his British Entomology, 1824-1840. Of his friendship with the latter the writer of Dale's obituary in EMM, 8, 1872, 255-56, stated ‘it is in connection with John Curtis that the name of J.C. Dale will be handed down to generations of entomologists yet unborn. In the ‘British Entomology’ his name is on almost every page, and it was from his collections that Curtis derived a vast portion of the material from which his elaborate work was drawn up. The two worked hand in hand, and their names came to be considered as almost synonyms’. This statement needs to be considered, however, in the light of a letter from Dale to A.H. Haliday dated 6 February 1833, quoted by G. Ordish, John Curtis and the Pioneering of Pest Control (1974): ‘I see Ellis has Curtis's book at a reduced price now and I fear C. has made a sorry affair of his speculation as I always feared he would, but he thought different then’. The references to Dale in both publications make extensive mention of his Coleoptera collections and note that he retained his boyhood enthusiasm for entomology, and a good memory for captures made many years earlier, right up until the time of his death. He is also mentioned by Dawson (1854), 37,44 and 160. Dale's entomological interests extended to all orders. He published his first note, on Lepidoptera, in MNH, 3, 1830, 332-34, and this was followed by some 83 further notes and articles covering a wide range of topics. Many of his general notes, and several specific ones, refer to Coleoptera. Perhaps his most important published work on beetles was the ‘Catalogue of the Coleopterous Insects of Dorsetshire’, in Nat., 2, 1837, 408-415, and 3, 1838, 2-18. Dale's collections passed to his sons, and subsequently a large part of them was acquired by the HDO, where they are maintained separately together with a large amount of supporting manuscript and other material. The Dalean collection was housed in 33 cabinets when it was received at Oxford in 1906, of which five cabinets were devoted to Coleoptera. Included in the latter are four drawers of Wollaston beetles from Madeira, Cape Verde, Canary Islands and St. Helena. Smith (1986), 72-73 lists the more important items in the manuscript collection including the following: entomological diaries for 1815, 1835-65, 1860-72; a number of notebooks and calendars covering the years 1807-12, and 1827-30; a list of localities ‘entomologized’ 1800-69; catalogue of his cabinet of British insects; catalogue of all orders of British insects in his cabinets; cut copy of Curtis's Guide indicating species taken by him and also in whose collection species may be found (based on 1829 edition); notes on contents of letters received and acted upon; his will; and some 5,000 letters from 287 correspondents (includes correspondence of C.W.Dale). Simms (1968) mentions material from him in the W.C. Hey collection at York. Elected a member of the first ESL on 25 June 1822, and was one of the original subscribers to Denny (1825). There are obituary notices in EMM., 8, 1872, 255-56 (Anonymous); Ent., 6, 1872, 56, (E. Newman); Proc.ESL., 1872, p.c (J.O.Westwood), and Petites Nouv. Ent., 4, 1872, 197. Gilbert (1977) p.83 also lists a reference in Accentuated list of British Lepidoptera, (Anonymous), 1858, xiii-xiv, which I have not seen. (MD 5/02, 12/21) |
|
| DALES, Rodney Phillips | Lived at Squirrels Heath, Essex and studied beetles. |