Biographical dictionary
The Biographical Dictionary of British Coleopterists was compiled by the late Michael Darby. The Dictionary can be accessed below, and see also the additional information provide by Michael:
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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| FORD, A. | 1871 - 30 May 1943 | Well known Bournemouth dealer. He started collecting as a young man when living at Hastings and moved to Bournemouth in 1904 at the time of setting up his business. H.J.Turner said of him ‘he was always an enthusiastic and tireless field worker and few had a wider and more varied knowledge of insects; his greatest interest, however, was always in Coleoptera, and he added many extremely rare and local species of that order to the Hampshire list’ (EMM., 79, 1943, p.155). Given the nature of his business it is not surprising that specimens taken by Ford are to be found in many collections. I have seen examples in the Museum at Kelvingrove, Glasgow; the general collection at Doncaster Museum; the Kauffmann collection of Cerambycidae at Manchester; and in Bolton Museum. Of the last Hancock and Pettit (1981) note that the museum acquired three separate collections: 1,500 specimens exotic worldwide; collected 1880s onward. Purchased from Ford for £5.00.(Accession no 163.06). Some specimens ex Swinhoe. Although Ford was a dealer these are said to be mainly his own specimens being disposed of due to ill health. ‘Material still typical dealers' specimens from variety of usually anonymous sources’. Mainly British material, from the New Forest in particular, but including some exotic Coleoptera, of c.1909 and including some Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera, in total amounting to 16,000 specimens many without locality data. A collection purchased for £29 (Accession numbers 95.67, 97.68) of British Coleoptera taken in the 1890s and amounting to 7,000 specimens. In Biological Curators Group Newsletter, 3, June 1976, Hancock refers to a collection of 5,753 specimens at Bolton purchased from Ford in 1897 which ‘do not now appear to exist’. This is presumably part of this third collection. Trevor James informs me that there is also Ford material in the D. G. Hall collection at Baldock, and Simon Hayhoe has informed me that there are Ford specimens in the Hall collection at Oldham. AES from 1937 until death. Member BENHS. Apart from the obituary by Turner from which a quotation is reproduced above, there is another, also by Turner, in ERJV., 55, 1943, p.70. (MD 12/02) | |
| FORD, J. | Gave several hundred insects which he had collected in Africa, including 344 beetles, to the NHM in 1935 (1935.459). (MD 12/02) | ||
| FORD, R | A Captain in the Army. He gave various insects including 36 Coleoptera from East Africa to the NHM (1906.201 20 specimens, 1907.168 16 specimens). (MD 12/02) | ||
| FORD, R.L.E. | K.C.Lewis tells me that there are specimens collected by Ford in his collection. (MD 12/06) | ||
| FORD, W.K. | Gave 123 Coleoptera which he had collected in S. Rhodesia to the NHM in 1933 (1933-380). (MD 12/02) | ||
| FORDHAM, William John | 23 October 1882 - 22 December 1942 | Born at Hankow in China where his father, the Rev. John S. Fordham was a Methodist missionary. He was educated at King's College, Pontefract, and at Sheffield University where he trained to be a doctor of medicine, qualifying at the early age of 21. After a period of general practice in Sheffield, Fatfield in Co. Durham, and Bubwith, near Selby, he returned to Sheffield University in 1919 to take a Diploma in Public Health and subsequently took up public health appointments in Sheffield and Gateshead. In 1928 he contracted encephalitis and was obliged to retire from active life. He moved to Barmby Moor, near Pocklington, just on the borders of Allerthorpe Common, where he died fourteen years later aged sixty. Fordham was interested in most insects but his favourite orders were Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Diptera and Hymenoptera. During his long illness he set himself the task of compiling locality lists for these orders subsequently described by G.B.Walsh as ‘almost certainly the most complete lists ever compiled in Britain’ (EMM., 79, 1943, p.48). The list of Coleoptera served as the basis for the distributional information given by Joy (1932). Fordham's collecting, which was extensive particularly in Yorkshire, and his diagnostic work, were hampered by poor sight, and he relied extensively on a wide range of specialists for determinations. Fordham was recorder of Coleoptera for the Yorkshire Naturalist's Union and published many notes in the Naturalist as a result. This journal also published his list of the Hymenoptera Aculeata of Yorkshire written with Rosse Butterfield. Most of his other published material also concentrated on Yorkshire but he did write ‘Insects in the Swansea area’ in EMM., 62, 1926, pp.38-39, and ‘Silpha subrotunda Steph. in the Isle of Man’ (ibid., 53, 1917, pp.234-235). Fordham also acted as Secretary to the Coleoptera Committee of the Yorkshire Naturalists Union and was first President of the Wallace Entomological Club based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Fordham's collections suffered badly during the War. Peter Skidmore notes (14.8.1978) that the collections which passed to Hull Museum were destroyed at that time, and Ian Wallace tells me that the Fordham collection of Coleoptera at Liverpool (34.91), including material collected 1882-1942, was also bombed. Wallace believes that the collection must have contained a number of syntypes and paratypes. Other insects collected by Fordham still survive at Liverpool, however, as does a folder of his correspondence. Walsh implies that all Fordham's collections passed to Hull. I have also seen specimens bearing Fordham’s name in the general collection at Doncaster Museum. FRES. The account by Walsh already mentioned is the only recorded obituary. (MD 12/02) | |
| FORREST, Hon. John | Gave jointly with Sir William Ingham various insects including 1,071 Coleoptera to the NHM in 1907 collected by G.W.Stalker in Alexandria and Australia (1907.261). (MD 12/02) | ||
| FORREST, T. Burberry | Leicestershire collector who ‘teamed up’ with Harry Holyoak in Leicestershire and also visited the New Forest, Isle of Wight and North Lancashire, ‘but he never published a word and not a single detail survives of any of the species he caught’ . He presented 93 Leicestershire beetles to the Leicester Museum on 23 September 1874 and 71 specimens of Leicestershire Chrysomelidae on 17 October 1875 (presumably without data) (Lott, 2009, pp.12-13). (MD 11/09) | ||
| FORSAYETH | The 1905 register at the NHM records a collection of insects from India including 283 Coleoptera as being left in the Entomological Department by Dr Forsayeth 'many years ago'. He gave his address as Aldershot. (MD 12/02) | ||
| FORSTER, Harold W. | 1908 - July 1974 | Charles MacKechnie-Jarvis in an obituary notice of Forster in EMM., 1974, p.255, notes that he became an active collector of Coleoptera in 1938 and that he recorded many interesting species from Epping Forest in particular. These included most noticeably Lathridius norvegicus Strand (now L. australicus Belon) which he found in a burned out hollow beech- and which A.A.Allen described as new to Britain (ibid., 88, 1952, pp.282-283). Among other interesting captures by Forster which MacKechnie-Jarvis notes are Spercheus emarginatus SI. from the Beccles area; Graphoderes cinereus L. from S. Essex; and Ilybius guttiger Gyll., Rhizophagus oblongicollis Blatch and Osphya bipunctata F. all from Epping Forest. There are specimens collected by Forster in the NMW. Ashley Kirke Spriggs writes that they are ‘very easily recognisable as the labels are hand-written, and edged with a narrow green border. Specimens are usually from ‘Beccles’ or ‘Epping Forest’ with additional material from localities in Surrey and elsewhere. The specimens are usually only represented by a short series in the A.E.Gardner collection, the majority having been donated to the BENHS’. After moving from Chingford to Harlow with his business, Forster apparently allowed his interest in entomology to lapse and his collection suffered from Anthrenus. The donation to BENHS, by his widow, consisted of what remained. Forster was a member of BENHS from 1939-1960. (MD 12/02) |