Born in London. Educated by French and Spanish refugees, and subsequently at Tavistock House. During this period he became particularly interested in chemistry. After leaving school he spent a year in the office of his father who was Deputy Paymaster General in the Ordnance Department. After taking advice from Faraday, Croft was sent to study chemistry at the University of Berlin and it was there that he first became interested in entomology. After three and a half years, when he obtained many distinctions, he returned to England. In 1842 Croft was recommended by Faraday for the chair of Chemistry at the newly formed University of Toronto in Canada. He arrived there in January 1843 and remained for thirty six years becoming Vice-Chancellor in 1849 and a member of two of the University's governing bodies. Croft resigned his professorship in 1879 and moved to San Diego in Texas where he died. Outside of his work at the University Croft pursued his natural history activities very actively. He became a leading member of the local agricultural and horticultural societies, and in 1863 was instrumental in the establishment of the Entomological Society of Ontario which first met at his house and of which he was President 1863-64 and 1868-71. Croft's particular enthusiasm was for Coleoptera, and C.J.S. Bethune, who was inspired by and collected with him, recorded in Canadian Entomologist, 48, 1916, p.1-5, that he formed a local collection. Croft's life forms part of a book by J. King, McCaul: Croft: Forneri; Personalities of Early University Days, 1915. Other accounts are listed by Gilbert (1976) pp.79-80. (MD 4/02)
Dates
1820 - 1 March 1883