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:
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| Name | Dates | Biography | |
|---|---|---|---|
| FOXCROFT, James | Mentioned in Cabinet of British Entomology, 1854. Presumably the same Foxcroft from whom the NHM purchased 700 insects in 1850 and 1852 including 32 Coleoptera (1850.129) and a further 222 specimens collected in Wales and Scotland (1852.122). He also gave Pyrochroa larvae to the Museum (1852.42). (MD 12/02) | ||
| FOY, H. Andrew | A Doctor. Gave insects including Coleoptera from Northern Nigeria to the NHM between 1909 and 1915 (1909.209,1910.44 and 1915.399). (MD 12/02) | ||
| FR(I?)END, Benjamin | Gave various gifts of Coleoptera to the NHM in the 1840s and 1850s including: 3 Carabus (1844.53); a Lucanus from China (1845.39); 3 Carabus lusitanicus from Lisbon (1846.3); 4 beetles from Spain (1846.80) and 166 from Palermo (1857.154). Other gifts indicate that he also visited India. (MD 12/02) | ||
| FRANCILLON, John | 1744-1818 | Charles Mackechnie-Jarvis, when compiling his ‘A History of the British Coleoptera’ in Proc.BENHS., 1976, p.99, was in touch with surviving descendants of the family and notes that Francillon descended from a Huguenot refugee silk weaver Francois Francillon who settled in Spitalfields at the end of the 17th century. He includes a family tree, and further notes that Francillon was married three times and left two daughters but no male descendants. His statement that Francillon practised as a physician, however, was taken from Hagen and is a mistake, Francillon was, in fact, a jeweller. Francillon built up large collections of British and foreign insects which were described by Charles Lyall, the botanist, as ‘the largest in the world’. Chalmers-Hunt, J.M.(1976) records that they were sold in three batches on 27-28 May 1817, 25-26 July 1817 and 11-13 June 1818, the last sale including the foreign insects and spiders. Purchasers included the NHM, J.F.Stephens, J. Curtis, (Stephens,J.F.(1828)p.76), W.Kirby and F.W.Hope. Of the last Smith,A.Z.(1986) p.120, states ‘An undetermined Prionid beetle in Longicorn cabinet 2, dr.36, bears a label in Westwood's handwriting 'This letter F. is in Kirby's handwriting & stands for Francillon at the sale of whose collection it was bought'; this is the first specimen to be definitely identified as out of the Francillon collection, although there should be others’. She also notes that Francillon's Catalogue of ‘Labels for Cabinet of the names of insects described by Fabricius’ is in HDO Library. The sale of Francillon's insects is said by several authors to have been the first auction sale devoted entirely to insects. Hagen,H.(1862) notes that Francillon wrote a ‘Description of a rare Scarabaeus (Sc. macropus) from Potosi in South America’ in 1795 published in Shaw, The Naturalists Miscellany, 1799, with a coloured plate, but I have not seen this. Francis Griffin, ‘The first Entomological Societies, an Early Chapter in Entomological History in England’ in Proc.RESL., series A, 15, September 1940, p.51, notes that Francillon's name appears in the minute book of the Society of Entomologists of London, which lasted from 1780-1782, as one of the members. Interestingly, the RESL purchased a MSS ‘Catalogue of John Francillon's Cabinet of Insects and Other Memorandums. A Copy of Articles belonging to an Aurelain Society. AD 1780’ in 1937 which refers to this Society. Surprisingly Francillon's name does not appear amongst the list of members of Haworth's Aurelian Society, the direct precursor of the Entomological Society, which flourished from 1801-1805. (MD 12/02) | |
| FRANCIS, Horace | Listed in the Ent.Ann., 1860 as being interested in British Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. His address is given as 38 Upper Bedford Place, London WC. This is presumably the same collector that Chalmers-Hunt,J.M. (1976) notes as selling Hemiptera and Coleoptera at Stevens’ rooms in 1894-1895 (Coleoptera on 29 May 1894). (MD 12/02) | ||
| FRANCIS, R.B. | A Reverend. Listed as a subscriber to Denny,H.(1825) and mentioned by Marsham, T.(1802) pp.xxiii and 343. (MD 12/02) | ||
| FRASER | This name appears on Coleoptera in the general collection at Cambridge. (MD 12/02) | ||
| FRASER, A.D. | A Major. Gave more than fifty Coleoptera Collected in Mesopotamia, Palestine and W. Africa to NHM between 1921 and 1927 (1921.257, 1922.219, 1923.471, 1927.385). (MD 12/02) | ||
| FRASER, F.C. | 15 February 1880 - 2 March 1963 | Well-known worker on Dragonflies. While stationed in India where he was a doctor and surgeon in the army he collected more than 400 beetles which he gave to the NHM between 1923 and 1934 (1923.345, 1925.223, 1925.452, 1926.465, 1926.496, 1934.638). K.C.Lewis tells me that he also has beetles collected by Fraser in his collection. There is a collection of manuscript material in the NHM including 70 letters to A.E. Gardner and 20 from him to Fraser, c.1949-1958. There is an obituary in EMM., 99, 1963, p.96 including a portrait. (MD 12/02, 12/06) | |
| FRASER, G.de C. | 1882 - 22 November 1952 | I am grateful to Dr Raymond Uhthoff-Kaufmann who has written to me about Fraser (and his son Michael, see below) who he knew well many years ago, as follows: ‘A very well-known and keen Lepidopterist who bred and raised many local species - macro- and micro- - at his house in Formby. He was also very interested in Coleoptera, of which he had a large collection in his numerous cabinets, including the late R. Wilding's, which he had recently purchased in the 1940s...Mr Fraser Sen., his wife and daughter were very generous hosts, whom I met on a number of occasions at their home; the two latter were also very keen entomologists and insect photographers. Fraser, pere was founder and President of the Raven Entomological and Natural History Society, begun in 1946...’. There is an account of Fraser in Underwood (1996) pp. 89-95. Mainly concerned with his work on Lepidoptera but does mention ‘his very comprehensive collection of Coleoptera [which was] always available for reference purposes’. Fraser’s brother, Robert, who was eight years his senior, was also a keen collector. There is an account of Fraser in Underwood (1996) pp. 89-95. Mainly concerned with his work on Lepidoptera but does mention ‘his very comprehensive collection of Coleoptera [which was] always available for reference purposes’. Fraser’s brother, Robert, who was eight years his senior was also a keen collector. Member of the BENHS. (MD 3/03) |