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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GWYN, M. | He is listed by James,T.J. (2018) as providing a special contribution either in the form of a comprehensive site list or a substantial number of records (MD 1/22) |
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| HACKETT, D.S. | He is listed by James,T.J. (2018) as providing a special contribution either in the form of a comprehensive site list or a substantial number of records (MD 1/22) |
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| HADFIELD, Mr | Mentioned by Dawson (1854) p.158: 'I am indebted to Mr Hadfield for a fine series of varieties [of Stenolophus dorsalis] which he procured from a gravel pit on Stapleford Common near Newark, where he has taken them both in Spring and autumn, among grass and rushes'. (MD 3/03) | ||
| HAGGARD, W.H.D. | Gave Coleoptera from Ecuador to the NHM in 1894 (1894-70). He gave his address as Ditchingham House, Bungay. (MD 3/03) | ||
| HAINES, Frederick Haselfoot | 19 February 1864 - 1946 | Born in London the son of Frederick Haines, a solicitor and Shakespearian scholar, and educated at University College School and University College Hospital where he obtained his D.P.H. in 1899. Married Eva Mary Fenn, daughter of the well-known author George Manville Fenn and had four children. Assisted Dr Ling of Saxmundham, Suffolk for one year before setting up in practice for himself at Brentford, Middlesex and later at Winfrith, Dorset. He remained there until 1923, when he retired from medical practice in order to pursue his great passion in natural history full time, and moved to Appleslade, Linwood, in the New Forest. Here he built his own house in wood, which he felt would be more in keeping with his surroundings, and established a nature reserve - part forest, part heath and part fen. He died after a short illness at Appleslade. Haines was an all round naturalist and antiquarian, being called at one time the Gilbert White of the New Forest. He collected in all entomological orders and sometimes alluded to himself as a 'philanderer in entomology'. The compiler of his obituary in Journal of the Society for British Entomology, 3, 1946, pp.37-39, wrote: 'nothing however could be less true, for he had an astonishing knowledge of all orders and a wonderful memory for names, passing from Order to Order and rarely at fault when naming a species. Sometimes he would be offered specimens caught in his own grounds, which he himself had not come across, but would invariably refuse them, and so great was his generosity that he would quite willingly part with specimens of which he had only singles in his own collection.' Haines's work on Coleoptera led him to establish a colony of Aromia moschata on Salix which he himself had planted, and to the discovery of Agrilus viridis on the same trees. His publications included a comprehensive list of some of the more local Dorset Coleoptera he had captured in EMM, 53, 1917, pp.162-164. Haines was a member of the Dorset Field Club, being Secretary of the Natural History Section and later Vice President, and of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society. He contributed many papers to the journals of both including a series on 'The Insects of Hampshire' in the Proceedings of the latter (annual until 1939). There is also an obituary in EMM, 82, 1946, 96. (MD 3/03) | |
| HALBERT, E.A.N. | Specimens from Halbert are in the H.Britten collection at Manchester. (MD 3/03) | ||
| HALBERT, James Nathaniel | 30 August 1871 - 7 May 1948 | Well-known Irish entomologist who worked at the Science and Art Museum, Dublin (now the National Museum of Ireland) from 1892 to 1923. He was appointed Technical Assistant in 1904 and Assistant Naturalist, in place of G.H.Carpenter, a few months later. His first publications concentrated mainly on Coleoptera and appeared in the Irish Naturalist from 1892 (listed in ryan et al. (1984) pp.64-67. These led to the work for which he is best known by Coleopterists: 'A List of the Beetles of Ireland' which he wrote with the Rev. W.F.Johnson, and which appeared in Proc.R.Irish Academy, 3rd series, VI (4), 1902, pp.535-827. He also worked on other Irish insects, and published similar lists of Neuroptera (1910, with J.J.F.X.King), Hemiptera (1935) and fresh water mites (1944). In the last group he discovered and described more than forty species and sub-species from Ireland, and he was the author of several new genera. His friend B.P.Beirne, who wrote his obituary in EMM, 84, 1948, 167, stated: 'Halbert's chief personal characteristics were his unfailing good humour and cheerfulness. He was always ready to assist others and [I am]...only one of many who owe much to his continued guidance and encouragement. Halbert had many interests apart from entomology. He was an expert ornithologist, musician and chess-player. He had an extensive knowledge of literature and art. He amassed large collections of stamps and post-marks'. Halbert died at his home in Dalkey, Co. Dublin, after a long illness, and was survived by four sisters. There is another, longer obituary, also by Beirne, in Irish Naturalists Journal, 9, 1948, pp.168-171. Specimens from Halbert are in the H.Britten collection at Manchester. (MD 3/03) | |
| HALIDAY, Alexander Henry | 21 November 1807 - 13 July 1870 | Born in Belfast and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. Subsequently studied for the law, and was called to the bar, but he preferred the study of literature and natural history, and it is not clear whether he ever practised. He settled in the North of Ireland where, in 1843, he was elected High Sheriff of Antrim. In 1860, for reasons of health, he moved to Italy where he took up residence with his relative, Signor Pisani, at the Villa Pisani, near Lucca. Following a visit to Sicily with Dr Perceval Wright his health deteriorated and he died in Lucca aged 63. Haliday is best known as a Dipterist, and later as a Hymenopterist and worker on the Thysanoptera, but before pursuing these studies he worked for a short time on the Coleoptera and there are many references to him in the contemporary literature, particulary for his captures around the shores of Lough Neagh and on Slubh Donard. From the latter he described a new species Calathus nubigena in 1838, but this was subsequently synonymised with melanocephalus. Haliday gave various Coleoptera to the British Museum (Natural History): 1846/70 and 72, 1851/9, 1863/20,77, and 83, 1868/36. A note in the Newsletter of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, 13, February 1982, mentions that R.Nash of Belfast was writing a Ph.D. entitled 'Life and Work of an Irish Entomologist A.H.Haliday'. Gilbert (1977) p.156, lists ten obituary and other notices including EMM, 7, 1870, p.91. (MD 3/03) | |
| HALL, Charles A. | Wrote Common British Beetles in Blacks Peeps at Nature Series. Ernest Lewis, who took up beetles as a result of reading Hall’s book as a child, tells me that Hall ‘was that ecclesiastical rarity , a minister of the Swedenborgian New Church of Jeruslaem, and editor of its magazine’. (MD 3/03) | ||
| HALL, Christopher George | 1842 - 3 September 1890 | Son of an East India Merchant. Lived first at Forest Hill, near London, and later at Deal and Dover. Appears to have been interested in entomology at an early age and pursued this interest together with his career as a musician. Hall published 21 notes and articles on insects before his death most of which are on Lepidoptera. Several, however, relate to Coleoptera including 'Cerambyx cerdo at Deal' in Ent., 16, 1883, pp.23-24. He worked closely with E.A.Newbery. Hall's collection of Coleoptera was purchased by the Werneth Park Study Centre and Natural History Museum at Oldham, in 1924. It is housed in sixty drawers and consists mostly of material from Dover, Deal and South London, but also includes later material from the north of England. It is accompanied by a manuscript Register of specimens. Later specimens from J.E.Cope and others) have been added to the collection including all the species listed in Holden Clough, The Natural History of a small Lancashire Valley, 1971. (MD 3/03) |