Born in Adelaide, Australia a younger son of Thomas Hudson Beare of Netley, Adelaide. Educated at Prince Alfred College and the University of Adelaide. He came to Britain some time before 1887 when, at the young age of 29, he became Professor of Engineering in Heriot Watt Collere, Edinburgh. Two years later he moved to London as Professor of Mechanical Engineering at University College, and in 1901 he returned to Edinburgh as Regius Professor of Engineering in the University of Edinburgh. In 1914 he became Dean of the Faculty of Science. He was knighted in 1926, and in 1936 he received the honorary degree of LL.D.
Besides his professional and entomological activities Beare engaged in many other pursuits too. He was a Captain in the First Volunteer Division of the Royal Engineers; Chairman of the North Edinburgh Unionist Association, an original member of the Miners Welfare Committee; and a member of the Sanitary Protection Association.
Beare's first publication on the Coleoptera 'Chrysomela goettingensis at Box Hill' appeared in the Ent.mon.Mag., 29, 1693, 193, and was followed by many others. He was particularly adept at writing regional notes, and later compiled lists of additions to the British fauna. Beare at one time lived on the edge of Richmond Park where he did a considerable amount of collecting (see for example Entomologist's Rec.J.Var., X, i898, 146-150) and it was while living there that he first met Horace Donisthorpe (QV). Donisthorpe later recorded that their friendship lasted almost fifty years during which time 'we have spent many happy days together collecting beetles all over England and Scotland (Ent.mon.Mag., 76, 1940, 187 and Entomologist's Rec.J.Var., 52, 1940, 107-8.
These trips led to several joint publications including their well known Catalogue of British Coleoptera, published by Janson in 1904. This was subsequently revised by Beare alone as A Catalogue of the Recorded Coleoptera of the British Isles (1930)- It was while staying with Beare at Nethy Bridge in 1908 that Donisthorpe took Anaspis hudsoni, which he named after him (Entomologist's Rec.J.Var., 21, 1909, 60. Now relegated as a junior synonym of A. rufilabris (Gyll.)). Beare added several species to the British list including Thanasimus rufipes Brahm, Aulonium trisulcum Geoff., Olophrum assimile Payk., Aulonium ruficorne Oliv., and Corticeus fraxinii Kug..
Beare's collection passed to Edinburgh University then on loan from the University to the RSM. It consistsof one cabinet of 44 drawers, and is accompanied by a brown paper parcel, numbered 151, which contains a volume entitled Records of Captures of British Coleoptera by T. Hudson Beare (arranged alphabetically with an index) with, inside it, a smaller volume titled Additional species sent to the Hudson Beare Collection (apparently in 1944). The collection has been worked over by Kevan and Waterston and re-attributed insects have been left in their original locations. Gaps indicate that some species are missing. Other specimens collected by Beare are in E.C.Bedwell's collection at the Castle Museum, Norwich. Donisthorpe records that Beare kept only his own captures.
Arthur Ewing and John Owen inform me that the Central Library, George Square, Edinburgh has a copy of Fowler copiously annotated by Beare which was formerly in the Zoology Department at Edinburgh University, but was removed because it was considered ‘too valuable’ to remain there.
The only obituary seems to be that by Donisthorpe quoted.
FRES 1896, Vice-President in 1910 and 1932, and served for four periods on the Council. (MD 10/03)