Biographical dictionary

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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
ADAMSON, Charles Henry Ellison d. 25 June 1930

Fowler (1912: 481) named Paussus adamsoni after Adamson who collected it at Minhu, Irawadi when stationed there as a Colonel in the Royal Artillery.  Later he became Assistant Commissioner and Chief Magistrate in Mandalay before leaving Burma after more than twenty years. On his return to England he lived at Crag Hall, Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Davis & Brewer (1986) record that collections of Lepidoptera and ethnographical material made by him are in the Hancock Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne, together with published catalogues, but do not mention Coleoptera.

Committee member of the Natural History Society of Northumberland from 1897, Hon. Curator, Invertebrate Zoology, 1897, Vice- President, 1903-07. (MD 7.01, 9/22)
ELLIS, Herbert/Henry Willoughby see WILLOUGHBY-ELLIS
ELLIS, John William. 1857 - 1916 Lancashire doctor who was a keen botanist and entomologist. He compiled a list of the Coleoptera of the Liverpool area which was first read before the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society in 1880 and published in The Naturalist, subsequently communicated to the Liverpool Biological Society on 13 April 1888, and finally published in book form as The Coleoptera of the Liverpool District (1889). Sharp (1908) said of it: ‘reproduces in succinct form all the local information regarding the order at that time available. Most of its records are due to Dr Ellis's own unfailing energy, but incorporated in the work are the observations of Messers Wilding, Smedley, Willoughby Gardner, and other contemporary students. The rigid circumspection of the area treated of to a fifteen mile radius from Liverpool Town Hall excludes many of the best Lancashire and Cheshire localities and deprives the work of considerable value and interest. The area thus limited was certainly very thoroughly worked ...’ (p.14). Ellis's copy of this list marked up with extra information since publication is in the Liverpool Museum, where there is also a manuscript by Ellis titled List of Coleoptera (Beetles) collected between May 1st 1884 and March 31st 1885 in the district within fifteen miles of the Liverpool Exchange which was compiled from 1502 specimens belonging to 329 species. Ellis's main collection is in the Liverpool Museum, acquired as a gift through the Liverpool Naturalists Field Club, and contains about 12,000 specimens in a 48 drawer cabinet. Unfortunately the specimens are accompanied by little data. Colour codes exist on some but the code book has been lost. 31 drawers are devoted to British specimens and the remainder to foreign beetles (with the exception of two drawers of Lepidoptera). The foreign material is strong on dung beetles in particular and includes material from F.Archer, Rev. J.O'Niel, E. Redman, Lightfoot, C. Melly, J. Chappell, D. Sharp, Buysson, B. Cooke jnr., J. Mertha, Boardman, S. Capper, C. Gregson and L. Mosley. Ellis presented a single beetle (from South Arica) to the NHM in 1891 (1891.9), and gave 183 beetles, mainly from Cheshire but including some specimens from Llangollen, collected in 1888, to the Grosvenor Museum, Chester (1125-1307). Apart from the manuscript material referred to above Liverpool Museum also has two marked up check lists, a manuscript The Journal of a Naturalist, which lists captures from 9 February to 7 May 1875 and 29 September 1886 to 21 July 1903, and a Locality Lists for Coleoptera which covers the period 13 January 1884 to 5 June 1886. There are accounts of Ellis in Lancs.Ches.Nat., February 1912 and August, 1916; Handbook and Guide to the Herbarium Collections in the Public Museums, Liverpool, 1935, 17-18; and Proc.Bot.Soc.Br Isl., 7, 1968, pp.169-172, which I have not seen. Pederson (2002) records material in David Sharp's scarpbook and autograph album in the RESL library. (I am grateful to Ian Wallace for help at Liverpool Museum). (MD 10/02)
ELLISON, L. Gave 4 beetles and other insects from N. Rhodesia to the NHM in 1933 (1933.408). (MD 10/02)
WILLOUGHBY ELLIS, Herbert 28 June 1869 – 15 October 1943

Sometimes confused with J.W.Ellis. Ellis was born in Woodville, Burton-upon-Trent. He attended Nuneaton School and Coppers Hill College, and worked as an electrician, founding Ellis and Ward Ltd. of Portugal Street, London. In 1890 he joined the Birmingham Nat Hist and Phil Soc. He served as its Vice-President in 1907, 1910-1939 and as President in 1908 . He was known as a geologist and fossil collector as well as an entomologist an interest he acquired at school. Through his role at the society (latterly merging with Birmingham Ent Soc) he was instrumental in the founding of a natural history collection at Birmingham Museum, originally under the City Art Gallery.

Ellis wrote the Coleoptera section of the VCH for Warwickshire and assisted with other VCH volumes, but published little else his most important paper being  'Criocephaluis polonicus, Motsch. a genus and species of Longicorn Coleoptera new to Britain (ERJV, 1903, 259-261) which he took as larvae in the New Forest with F. Gilbert Smith. (species now synonymised with Arhopalus ferus Mulsant) 

Ellis's main collection is in the Yorkshire museum purchased in 1945 and arranged by Walter Douglas Hincks and Reginald Wagstaffe (see Hincks’ entry below). It is an extensive collection of entomology, mostly coleoptera but with large numbers of Hemiptera and Hymenoptera (especially ants) as well. Simms’ (1968) estimate of approximately 100,000 specimens (across all orders) in the collection probably holds true. South of England provenance for most specimens. Denton (1993) estimates 80,000 Coleoptera specimens including 12,282 specimens of Carabidae (covered in his publication). Ellis was working with many other collectors, which are listed in the introduction of Denton 1993 – which is based on a rearrangement of the Ellis collection. Notably W G Blatch who was a correspondent and Blatch’s entomological diaries (also in the Y0rkshire Museum collection) note the acquisition of drawers and boxes of material from Blatch. The paper archive at the Yorkshire Museum associated with Ellis includes field diaries, lecture notes, and ephemera. Also three books of site lists: Coleoptera of Cannock Chase, Coleoptera of the New Forest, and Coleoptera of Huntington. Denton (1993) is important to an understanding his collection in the Yorkshire Museum.(Information from Adam Parker).

Ellis gave beetles collected by G.Gulliver to Birmingham Museum (10 August 1914) and also beetles collected by himself at Crowthorne (24 January 1935). His material is also in the Blatch collection there. A letter copy at Liverpool dated 5 July 1932 from him (then living at Speldhurst Close, Sevenoaks), concerning the Mason collection at Bolton, states: ‘Many years ago the Mason collection came into your possession and many of the duplicates... to me. I did not incorporate many of these duplicates into my own collection.’ Other specimens collected by him are in the Bedwell collection at Norwich; the general collection at Doncaster; the collection of the RHS (8 specimens with initials HWE, Carabids, Buprestids and Cerambycids. Information from Andy Salisbury). Mackechnie Jarvis (1976) p.108 records that he owned the Blatch and Blenkarn collections, and that part of his collection went to Harrow School and part was sold. A dozen or so beetles collected by Ellis in the Isle of Wight, Knowle, Gravesend, Tonbridge, Eastleigh and Bedfordshire are in the Tullie House Museum, Carlisle (Information from Steve Hewitt). Correspondence with C.J.Wainwright (1907-1939) is in the RESL (Pederesen (2002) p.126). There are obituaries in EMM, 1943, 280 and in Proc.RESL, 8, 1944, 69 (incorrectly named as Henry Willoughby Ellis).

FESL 1900 (Council 1916-18, 1922-24, 1929 -31; Vice President 1924, 1931. Member of the Ent. Club 1923 (Secretary 1924), K.G.Blair who wrote the EMM obituary noting that his 'genial presence' at meetings would be much missed. (MD 12/04, 12/21)