Biographical dictionary
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| Name | Dates | Biography | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GIMINGHAM, Conrad T. | 1884 - 16 November 1957 | Trained as a chemist but became better known as an economic entomologist who was much involved in the affairs of the Association of Applied Biologists of which he was President 1938- 1940. Gimingham's main work was in the study and development of insecticides first at Rothamstead and later at the Plant Pathology Laboratory at Harpenden. He played an important part in the setting up in 1942 of the Ministry of Agriculture's approval scheme for crop protection products and in running the quarantine scheme which was probably responsible for preventing the Colorado beetle establishing itself here. Apart from his official work Gimingham was also a collector of British insects particularly Coleoptera and Aphididae. His interest in the former lead to his becoming official Coleoptera Recorder for Hertfordshire and to his publication of 'Notes on the list of Hertfordshire Coleoptera’ in Trans. Hertfordshire Nat.Hist.Soc., 24, 1955, pp.136-145. He also wrote on beetles in Ireland (EMM., 78, 1942, p.51). His Coleoptera collection remained at the Plant Pathology Laboratory after his death.Duff (1993), p.4 records that Gimingham collected Coleoptera around Long Ashton and occasionally elsewhere in Somerset. FRES from 1919 serving on Council three times and as Vice-President in 1950. There is an obituary in Proc.RESL., 22 (C), 1957-58, p.74 and another in Ann.Appl.Biol., 46, 1958, pp.124-125 which I have not seen. (MD 1/03, 10/03) | |
| GLANVILLE, Eleanor | c.1654 - 1709 | Distinquished early entomologist who is referred to before 1967 as Elizabeth or Lady Glanville. She appears to be the first person recorded to have reared Coleoptera. Glanville's life and work have been the subject of intense research by a number of historians the three most important publications being P.B.M.Allan, 'Mrs Glanville and Her Fritallary’, ERJV., 63, 1951, pp.292-294; R.S.Wilkinson, 'Elizabeth Glanville, an early Entomologist', Ent.Gaz., 17, 1966, pp.149-160; and W.S.Bristowe, 'The Life of a Distinquished Woman Naturalist, Eleanor Glanville (Circa 1654-1709)’,Ent.Gaz., 18, 1967, pp.202-211. Wilkinson showed that Glanville collected widely, particularly Lepidoptera, at a time when it was unusual for anyone, let alone a woman to pursue entomology; that she kept accurate records of larvae and foodplants; and that she reared a number of species still identifiable from her careful descriptions. His evidence is based particularly on the surviving collections and correspondence with James Petiver preserved in the NHM (Sloane MS 3324). Glanville's son, Richard, was apprenticed to Petiver which gives an indication of the closeness of their contact. At least two letters mention Coleoptera. On 28 December 1702, she wrote to Petiver from Bristol that she had neglected to clean her collections properly and 'ye Bettles was molded over wth a whit crusty mould wch when I went to clean broke al to peeces I hope while I live never again to let them be so long neglected', and in another letter of similar date referring to a package of insects from the Bristol area she lists four 'Scarabei ... The Great green bettle in ye box wch has but 2, lays eggs lik smal smoth cariway comfits and at that time, they perf um ye room they are in with an exceding sweet and pleasant smel 2 of them in a room wil give as strong a sent as if you were in a perfumers Shop', presumably a reference to Aromia moschata. Bristowe's research established Glanville's true name, and details the sad story of the end of her life when she was separated from her villainous husband whose exploits appear to have led to her suffering a mental and physical breakdown. An account of Glanville and her involvement in collecting Lepidoptera, taken from the above, appears in Salmon (2000) pp.106-08. (MD 1/03) | |
| GLEADOW, F. | Gave 5 Coleoptera from the Himalayas to the NHM in 1901 (1901/48). (MD 1/03) | ||
| GLOYNE, C. | Published 'Captures of Coleoptera' in EWI., 8, 1860, pp.67-68. (MD 1/03) | ||
| GODDARD, Donald George | 14 August 1947 – June 2000 | Born in Leicester. Joined the Saturday morning Natural History Club at Leicester Museum and, encouraged by Ian Evans, then the keeper of Biology, sent in records of Carabidae and Heteroptera at the age of 14. From 1967 to 1970 he studied Biological Sciences at the University of Leicester before joining the British Antarctic Survey as an invertebrate ecologist researching Antarctic soil mites from 1971-77. He spent two years in the South Atlantic at the same time studying for a Ph.D at Leicester University, which he was awarded in 1976. Between 1978 and 1983 Lott (2009), 38, records that he carried out detailed surveys of the beetles and other insects in three areas in north east Leicestershire in order to gather information for a response to a proposal to exploit coal reserves. This work was followed by further contracts for surveys on insects at sites scattered all over Leicestershire and established some, such as Donington Park, as of Conservation importance. In 1983, after marrying, Goddard moved to Worcestershire to take up a teaching post in biology and was awarded a Post Graduate Certificate of Education at Worcester College of Higher Education in 1982. He eventually became Head of the Biology Department before taking early retirement for health reasons in 1997. He then worked as a Wildlife Consultant mainly to the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust and as an invertebrate Ecologist with the National Trust’s Biological Survey Team. Shortly before his death he participated in the Norfolk Coleopterists meeting and took part in the European Commission’s ‘Life 2’ Coleoptera Survey of the New Forest. As a natural historian one of his main interests was pond life, especially amphibians and beetles, but his interests extended much further and, as well as beetles he published on caddis flies, springtails and mites. He was a very enthusiastic and energetic field worker, with a knack for making good finds. Of his personality, Keith Alexander and Derek Lot commented in their tribute to him in Col.,10, 2001, 28-29, from which most of the above is taken, ‘His somewhat wild-eyed appearance belied an easy-going, gentle and friendly nature and he was always a welcome companion on field trips. In his Leicester days, he was fond of turning up with a friend to play snooker at the Conservative Club, where his father was a prominent member, wearing long hair and open-toed sandals.’ Goddard was a longstanding member of the Balfour-Browne Club. A note in Latissimus, 13, May 2001, recording his sudden death, mentions that he contributed over a thousand records to the National Recording Scheme. Listed as a subscriber to the Coleopterists Newsletter in 1981. (MD 11/09, 1/22) |
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| GODFREY, A. | He is listed by James,T.J. (2018) as providing a special contribution (MD 1/22) |
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| GODMAN, Frederick DuCane | 15 January 1834 - 19 February 1919 | Mainly a Lepidopterist but he is included here as one of the central figures in Victorian entomology and as the owner of extensive Coleoptera collections amassed during his work on the Biologia Centrali-Americanum. Godman was born at Park Hatch, Surrey, the third son of Joseph Godman. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge where he met the natural historian Osbert Salvin with whom he was to remain on close terms until Salvin's death in 1898. It was with Salvin that he undertook many collecting trips and compiled the monumental Biologia Centrali-Americanum which extended to 52 volumes including complete coverage of the Coleopterous fauna as then known. (The volume on Staphylinidae and water beetles alone runs to 824 quarto pages plus numerous coloured plates, which gives an indication of the magnitude of the undertaking.) Godman was a man of many parts and established a reputation as a field naturalist, ornithologist and sportsman as well as an entomologist. In the Introductory volume to the Biologia he records how his interest in natural history and particularly entomology came to be dominant. Salvin and he had collected together at Cambridge. Salvin developed an interest in foreign material and had mounted two expeditions to Central America before August 1861 when he persuaded Godman to join him on a third trip to British Honduras and Guatemala. The expedition went well (though not all their activities would be looked upon favourably today particularly the practice of employing natives to cut down trees 'which shaded the objects we wished to photograph'!) and further cemented their friendship so that they determined to establish a joint Central American 'museum' of natural history in London to include all their collections. This was set up initially at 23 The Boltons, South Kensington, where Salvin had moved after his marriage in 1865. It was from this time Godman noted 'that we realy did serious work together...[and] from thence onwards we spent the greater part of the week in London arranging our collections'. Later, he said of his friendship with Salvin: 'we were more intimately connected than most brothers'. After Salvin was appointed Curator of Birds at Cambridge in 1873 Godman moved the collections to Tenterden Street, Hanover Square and, in 1878, to 10 Chandos Street, Cavendish Square. Both men appear to have been wealthy and were able to employ other entomologists to collect for them and to work on the collections as part of the process of compiling the Biologia. Amongst the Coleopterists was G.C.Champion, who acted as Godman's Secretary, and who subsequently wrote that he owed his career as an entomologist 'entirely to the encouragement, liberality, and friendship of Godman with whom [I]... remained in close association... for forty years' (EMM., 55, 1919, p.90). By the time the collections were presented to the NHM the Coleoptera alone amounted to 85,920 specimens excluding 22,793 Curculionidae and 9474 Staphylinidae. Included was the Janson collection of Elateridae (including that of Candeze) which Godman had acquired for the Central American species. The NHM also holds some of the pen-and-ink and water-colour drawings for the Biologia including 500 of beetles by Baron Max Schlereth for vols II (1887-1890) and IV (1884-1910) (listed in Harvet et al. (1996) pp.87-88. There also 6650 insects including beetles, being duplicates of the Biologia material in the HDO (Smith (1986) pp.121-22) It is clear that not all the collections were devoted to Central America for in 1865 Godman made a trip to the Azores taking with him the Coleopterist J.A.Brewer. This subsequently resulted in a detailed account of the Flora and Fauna published in 1870 which included 212 Coleoptera. These were named by G.R.Crotch and also passed into the collections of the NHM. After a further trip to Central America when he spent most of his time in Mexico, Godman travelled to India in 1886 in company with the Lepidopterist H.J.Elwes, and later to Switzerland. Neither of these trips appears to have involved Coleoptera. Publication of the Biologia, which included 38 volumes on Insecta, commenced in 1879 and was completed in 1915, Godman undertaking the work of assembling the material himself after Salvin's death. Salvin and Godman wrote the volumes on birds and Lepidoptera, Rhopalacera, and Champion, Bates, Baly, Sharp and other Coleopterists the volumes on beetles. Amongst the illustrators was Robert H.F.Rippon, himself a Coleopterist, and whose life as a collector and publisher appears to have been modelled to some extent on that of Godman. There is correspondence in the RESL (Pedersen (2002) pp.60,88) which includes ‘lists of specimens’, a wedding present, and letters from Dame Alice Godman, his wife. FRES from 1865, President 1891-92. FLS. He was also a Fellow of many other Societies and a Trustee of the British Museum. Gilbert (1977) gives a full list of obituaries and other notices. FRES from 1865, President 1891-92. FLS. He was also a Fellow of many other Societies and a Trustee of the British Museum. Gilbert (1977) gives a full list of obituaries and other notices. (MD 1/03) | |
| GODWIN-AUSTEN | A Colonel in the army recorded by Arrow (1917) to have collected Rutelinae in the Khasi Hills, Assam. He sold 530 insects including 10 beetles to the NHM in 1896 (1896/135) the register noting 'There were many more specimens...but they were too much mite eaten to be worth considering'. Jonathan Cooter has pointed out to me that this is probably the same person after whom Mt. Godwin-Austen, now known as K2, the World’s second highest peak, was named. (MD 1/03) | ||
| GOODENOUGH, Samuel | A Doctor. Frequent correspondent with John Curtis who asked him, for example, to 'save insects for me' (although he is not mentioned in G. Ordish, John Curtis, 1974). Probably the Goodenough mentioned by Marsham (1802) p.423, as the captor of Dytiscus humeralis at Ealing. The 24th volume of the Naturalist's Miscellany (1812-1813) is dedicated to him. (MD 1/03) | ||
| GOODFELLOW, Walter | Gave Coleoptera from N.Ecuador and the Philippines to the NHM in 1901 and 1905 (1901/235, 1905/262). Lived in Bournemouth. (MD 1/03) |