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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GRIESBACH, Henry G. | One of four sons of George Leopold Jacob Griesbach, a music teacher of Windsor, all of whom were Coleopterists. (See J.H.GRIESBACH). He was a Member of the Entomological Society. (MD 1/03) | ||
| GRIESBACH, John Henry | 1798 - 1875 | Most of my information about Griesbach and other members of the family (see above and below) is taken from MacKechnie-Jarvis (1976) who illustrates a family tree showing how the Griesbachs were related by marriage to the Waterhouse and Rye families. (Elizabeth Ann Griesbach, sister of the four sons of George Leopold Jacob Griesbach, married George Robert Waterhouse, the Coleopterist and Keeper of Minerals at the NHM). John Henry, a 'Cellist and Composer of Windsor' was also a Coleopterist. MacKechnie-Jarvis says of the family: 'Stephens published a number of their records from the Windsor area and it is well known that up to 1930 some of their captures had never been repeated. They were a musical family who came to England from Halle in Hanover to join Queen Charlotte's band and also played as a family chamber orchestra. In my earlier days some members of our society [BENHS] were convinced that they had 'fiddled' the records, but the Griesbach honour was abundantly redeemed when Adelocera quercus [Lacon querceus](Herbst)... was rediscovered at Windsor and restored to the British list in 1936 [by A.A.Allen]'. The name Griesbach appears on labels in the Waterhouse Collection in the RSM. (MD 1/03) | |
| GRIESBACH, W.G. | One of four sons of George Leopold Jacob Griesbach, a music teacher of Windsor, all of whom were Coleopterists. (See J.H.GRIESBACH). (MD 1/03) | ||
| GRIFFIN, M.J. | 'The Late Mr Griffin' is mentioned by Stephens (1828) as the captor of various beetles eg. vol.1, pp. 83,161. Both these captures were made near Norwich. Possibly related to R. GRIFFIN, see below. (MD 1/03) | ||
| GRIFFIN, R. | The Accessions Register at the Castle Museum, Norwich records that various insects from India were acquired in 1837 from R. Griffin. (MD 1/03) | ||
| GRIFFITH, Charles Fitzroy | 1912- 24 May 1993 | Born in Wormit on Tay, Dundee and graduated from St. Andrews University with a first in Chemistry. His interest in natural history started in 1931-32 when he went to work at the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington. In 1936 he joined the Pilkington Research Laboratories in St Helens and in 1960 moved with them to Lathom before taking early retirement in 1967. His move to Quarry House, Aughton, where he lived until his death, took place in 1965. According to S. Bowestead who wrote his obituary in EMM, 130, 1994, pp.175-76, Griffith’s interest in insects began in about1944 and quickly settled on the Coleoptera. He specialised in the Staphylinidae and particularly the genus Atheta making: ‘great use of Victor Hansen’s excellent Danmarks Fauna volume (3, 1954)... by sheer persistence he mastered the Danish keys and I remember many enjoyable afternoons looking at spermatheca preparations through his old brass Watson microscope’. Later he worked through the duplicate Atheta in Harwood’s collection at the HDO. Johnson (2004) p.10 cites a collection of 8,000 specimens made by Griffith accessioned by the Manchester Museum in 1993 at which time it was affected by mould. The specimens came mainly from the north west of England, north Wales and Northern Ireland and included some from the Oxford district collected by J.J.Collins. The names are often mis-spelt as Griffiths. It is accompanied by notes, letters and card indices. Griffith was a member of the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society and a founder member of the Raven Entomological and Natural History Society of which he was Vice President 1960-88. FRESL 1955-1993. The obituary cited above includes a portrait and details of the 10 articles on beetles he published between 1946 and 1983. (MD 11/09) | |
| GRIFFITH, Dr | Arrow (1917) p.243 mentions Dr Griffith as collecting specimens in the Khasi Hills. (MD 1/03) | ||
| GRIMSHAW, Percy Hall | 14 April 1869 - 14 November 1939 | Gave 69 insects including beetles from Aberlady, Gullane and Gosford Bay, near Edinburgh, to the RSM in 1893 (Accession no. 1893-102). There is correspondence in the RESL including a paper on Diptera (27 February 1935, gives his address as the RSM) and a letter about his subscription dated 25 April 1939: ‘I should not have fallen into arrears had it not been for the fact about two years ago I was let down by a friend for the sum of over two hundred pounds, and this friend went to the south of France and died there without paying his debt or leaving me any compensation.’ (Pedersen (2002) p.82). (MD 1/03, 11/09) | |
| GRIMSTON, Mr | Mentioned by Dawson (1854) p.66 as 'recently' taking three examples of Chlaenius holosericeus at Hornsey on the Yorkshire coast. (MD 1/03) | ||
| GUERMONPREZ, Henry Leopold Foster | 5 July 1851 - 21 December 1924 | Known as 'The Gilbert White of Bognor', Guermonprez made extensive collections of natural history and other interests which were given by his family to the County Council in 1943 for the formation of a museum in Bognor Regis. After being housed in a series of temporary premises between 1943 and 1972 it was moved to Portsmouth Museum. The large collection of insects includes several boxes of beetles and related documentation. Guermonprez is mentioned in the insect volume of the VCH for Sussex (1905) and there are obituaries in Littlehampton Nature and Archaeology Circle Report of Proceedings, 1924; West Sussex Gazette, 1 January 1925; and The Post, Bognor Regis, 30 November 1957. (MD 1/03) |