Son of John Garner Arrow of Streatham. Entered an architectural office, but after five years moved to the NHM in 1896. Although he officially retired on 20 December 1938, by which time he was Deputy Keeper of the Entomological Department, he continued to work at the Museum, in spite of eye trouble in later years, almost daily until his death. In recognition of his work on systematic entomology during this period the Trustees bestowed upon him 'Honorary Associateship’ of the Museum. Arrow married Rachel Katharine Davis and lived at 9 Rossdale Road, Putney. His hobbies were music, photography and gardening.
Although in later life Arrow interested himself in the Neuroptera, most of his work was on beetles. M.E. Bacchus, ‘A Catalogue of the Type Specimens of the Cetoniinae described by G.J.Arrow’ in Bull.B.Mus.nat.Hist.,MNH, Entomology, 31(2), 1974, 23-44 notices that he described about 1,800 species in 24 families ‘mostly from material in the Museum collection’. Bacchus also includes a complete bibliography of his entomological publications which date from 1899 to 1951 and amount to 210 items. Most are on the Scarabaeoidea. His major works were undoubtedly the four volumes in the FBI series: Lamellicornia: Cetoniinae, Dynastinae (1910); Rutelinae, Desmonycinae, Euchirinae (1917); Coprinae (1931) and Lucanidae, Passalidae (1950); a paper 'On Sound Production in the Lamellicorn Beetles' in Trans.ent.Soc.Lond., 1904 (iv), 709-750; and his book Horned Beetles (1951). Apart from these works on the Scarabs he also published accounts of the Endomychidae and Erotylidae of Sumatra (1927) and Indo China (1928), and a revision of the African Languridae (1929). Riley (1964) records an interesting anecdote of Arrow whom he describes as ‘a rather short compact figure and a prodigious worker ... As an entomologist Arrow was in one way possibly unique: he did no collecting, for he could not bring himself to kill anything, even a beetle’.
Harvey et.al.(1996) record correspondence in the Janson Family archive in the NHM., and there is a letter to G.C. Champion dated 13 May 1927 in the RES (Pedersen (2002), 73. Gilbert (1977) lists several references and obituaries, though it should be noted that the seven page article by Horn is, in fact, a notice of Arrow's retirement covering only a few lines; for 76 read 70. There are also Arrow's own brief notes in Who's Who and Who was Who. FRES 1899 until his death, and on Council 1905-07. (MD 7.01, 11.09)