Born at North Berwick, Scotland. He spent his early boyhood in Manchester and later settled at Peebles where he entered into the business of a tweed manufacturer, the profession in which he remained until his early retirement, in about 1905, to take up scientific pursuits. He died at Ludlow while on his way back to Scotland after a six week entomological holiday at Brockenhurst in the New Forest.
Hudson Beare recorded that ‘From early life he had taken a keen interest in entomological work, beginning, as is so often the case, as a Lepidopterist. The fine collection that he made he presented some years ago to the Chambers Museum, Peebles. Turning later on to the study of Coleoptera, to which all the leisure hours of his later life were devoted, he gradually gathered together a very fine collection of British beetles. He was a keen and successful field worker; among his local captures were two specimens of Orochares angustatiis, of which only two other British captures have ever been recorded, and a fine series of Lenoticus serratus, both species being found within a short distance of his own home. Not satisfied with working at the British fauna he spent much time and energy on the study of the Cetoniidae of the world, and amassed a remarkably fine collection of this family, one of the best private collections in the country.‘Modest and unassuming in character, and generous in the extreme in giving to others the benefit of his practical experience, he was a charming companion in the field, and we recall with pleasure many successful days spent with him on entomological trips both in Scotland and England ...’ (Ent.mon.Mag., 1925, 208-09).
Black published nine notes in the Et.mon.Mag., between 1900 and 1923 most referring to interesting captures in Scotland
His beetle collections were acquired by the RSM from Miss Isobel Black of Nethercroft, Peebles. The British insects amounting to 12,824 specimens in 1926 (1926-94), and the foreign Cetoniidae and Lucanidae, amounting to 4,272 specimens in 1927.
There is another obituary in Proc.Linn.Soc.Lond., 1925-6, 74-75. (MD 10/01)