Born in Hadlow, Kent. Educated at Judd School, Tonbridge and at Imperial College, London University (Ph.D. 1937). Served in the Royal Air Force 1941/2-46. He was appointed Assistant Curator of the Tunbridge Wells Museum in 1938 and worked there until 1948 when he took up the post of Lecturer in Zoological Taxonomy at Glasgow University. Promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1964, and, on his retirement in 1980, Honorary Lecturer. His flat, close to the University, where he lived with his wife Betty (nee Campbell, married 1954) was well known to numerous visiting entomologists.
Crowson’s interest in Coleoptera started when he was only seven years old, and turned to their evolutionary history when he read Darwin’s Origin of Species at the age of eleven. In a letter to me in July 2012 Geoff Hancock related that Crowson had told him that ''he wasn't really interested in species as such', but, as with many things he often had a twinkle in his eye or was sending out a challenge'.
Crowson's publications included a little over one hundred books and articles dealing with different aspects of the Coleoptera many in conjunction with other authors eg. T. Sen Gupta, H. Kasap and his wife, some of whom were his students at Glasgow. Among the first of his articles were two on the metendosternite in Coleoptera (Trans.RESL., 87, 1938, 397-416 and 94, 1944, 273-310), the research for which had been carried out as part of his Ph.D. Much of his subsequent research was on the higher classification and led in 1950 to the appearance of the first of his articles on ‘The Classification of the Families of British Coleoptera’ (EMM, 86,149-171. later parts appeared ibid., 274-288, 327-344; 87, 1951, 117-128, 147-156; 88, 1952, 64-71, 109-132; 89, 1953, 37-59, 181-198, 237-248; 90, 1954, 57-63) subsequently published in book form as The Natural Classification of the Families of British Coleoptera in 1955, and in 1967 with additions and corrections from the EMM., 103, 1967, 209-214. Shortly after the completion of the original set of articles Crowson published Coleoptera: Introduction and Keys to Families as vol.IV, part 1 (1956) of the Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects produced by the RESL.
Crowson's work included the study of larval and fossil material both of which are referred to throughout his publications. His first article devoted to fossils specifically, 'The fossil insects of the Weald' appeared in Royal Tunbridge Wells: Past and Present, 1946, pp.24-26, and subsequent publications on this topic have included 'Some thoughts concerning the insects of the Baltic Amber', Proc. 12th int. Congr. Ent. London, 1964, 133, the chapter on Coleoptera in W.B.Harland et al, The Fossil Record, 1967, and 'The evolutionary history of Coleoptera, as documented by fossil and comparative evidence' in AttiXCongr. naz. Ital. Entom. Sassari, 1976, 47-90.
Among many important papers on the subject of the British Coleopterous fauna his publication of his discovery of Leistus rufomarginatus Duft. on the Lower Greensand hills near Sevenoaks, as new to Britain, must be one of the best known (EMM., 78, 1942, 281-82). After moving to Scotland he contributed many articles on the subject of the Scottish Coleopterous fauna to the Glasgow Naturalist and the EMM. in particular, in some of which he was assisted by his wife.
Crowson's last major publications were Classification and Biology, 1971 (not related to Coleoptera particularly though they are mentioned), and The Biology of the Coleoptera, 1981 in which he exhibited a prodigious knowledge of early and contemporary literature (and updates his earlier Classification). Biology, Phylogeny and Classification of Coleoptera, by 25 different authors, was published in Warsaw in 1995 in honour of his 80th birthday.
Crowson made a number of collecting trips abroad. He visited Australia and New Zealand after winning a Leverhulme research fellowship, and in April 1959 he was a guest with his wife at a biological Research Station at Rieti, in the Central Appenines, Italy. In 1969 he was appointed to the Alexander Agassiz visiting lectureship at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard and was able to explore the United States as a result. In 1968 the Congress of Entomology in Moscow enabled him to meet many Russian entomologists. The New Zealand trip prompted a particular interest in the Australasian fauna on which he published a number of articles. Further information about his work abroad, as well as about his broad ranging views on many topics including socialism (he believed communism held the answer to social injustice in the 1930s but became disillusioned like so many others in the 50s) is to be found in Colin Johnson’s obituary mentioned below.
13 taxa have been dedicated to Crowson the most famous being Crowsoniella relicta, Pace, a fascinating endogean beetle discovered in Central Italy in 1975, which is the only representative of the Archostemata in Europe (Boll. Mus. civ. Storia nat.Verona, 2, 1976, 445-458). Crowson’s collection included a large number of Coleoptera larvae (all families), world wide. A large collection of microscope slides of adult and larval Coleoptera of all families, worldwide, as well as a collection of fossil insects, including a few paratypes, are in the NHM, together with a MS notebook titled The Metendosternite in Coleoptera. Descriptive Notes and Sketches. He also accumulated a large library relating to all families and topics.
FRES from 1937. Member of the Coleopterist's Society from 1971 (Vice-President 1971-1975). Honorary Fellow of the All-Union Entomological Society, Moscow, USSR, 1980. There is an obituary by Colin Johnson in EMM, 137, 2001, 237-241 (with photograph, but without bibliography) (Information from RAC before his death).
At Crowson's memorial service the NHM was represented by Peter Hammond who kindly furnished me with a copy his address (dated June 1999) which I am pleased to be able to repeat here in full:
'Roy Crowson, the most remarkable and the most influential zoologist to have worked on the systematics of beetles in this century, spent most of his career in Glasgow [but he had] a close and ongoing relationship [with the NHM in London] during the more than sixty years that he was engaged in active research. Although what I have to say is in the way of a personal tribute, I am also here to represent the Museum, and to acknowledge the debt that, collectively, we owe to Roy. Tempered as these occasions may be by sadness and regrets (such as my own, that I will mention later, for opportunities missed), we are here to celebrate Roy's scientific and other achievements. In contributing to this celebration, although entirely 'unelected' and without their permission, I hope to represent that thriving group of biologists, coworkers, and students of Roy's throughout the world, who are involved in work on his primary area of research- the biology and taxonomy of that enormous group of organisms known as Coleoptera or beetles,
I spoke to a number of my BM colleagues before coming here today, to elicit their views on Roy's scientific achievements. Words and comments that cropped up frequently were 'inspirational', 'ground breaking', 'ahead of his time', 'scholarship' and 'integrity'. However, it surprised even me, as a long-term admirer of Roy and his works, how often my colleagues, be they entomologists, botanists or veterbaret-zoologists, referred to him as 'a giant in the field of systematic biology'...
Roy's relationship with the BM began with his earliest research on beetles in the 1930s. In his first major publication of 1938, a truly ground-breaking comparative study of internal structural features in beetles, he acknowledges his visits to the BM and the the help he received there. Since then, until the last few years at least, we have been fortunate to receive Roya as a vistor on a regular basis. M<any former staff of the Department as well as those currently in post have bulging files of correspondence from him. He was a prolific correspondent. His letters were always informative, often exciting, usually combative in tone at least in part, and sometimes even intimidating to the initiated. I still, perhaps perversely, treasure a letter he sent me more than twenty years ago in relation to a just-published paper of which I was proud. He jumped straight in saying (and I quote) that his 'first reaction to the paper is that is somewhat intellectually pretentious' (ouch!), but in due course the letter gets round to the positive and the encouraging ... This was Roy's way in both correspondence and conversation. First the problems, the quibbles, the latest things that were troubling him, and then, once you got through all of this, the supportive comments, the advice, and the chance to tap the immense store of relevant information on beetles...
Roy's achievements as a systematist have been and will be referred to by others today. His 1970 book Classification and Biology remains a standard and to many, despite recent developments in the field of biosystematics, still the most useful general work on the theory and practice of this science. His 802 page The Biology of the Coleoptera published in 1981, although not easy to use, is also, in its way, a masterpiece that will remain an essential reference work for decades to come. To me, however, Roy's crowning achievement has been the hands-on work on beetle classification that lasted through his career, much of it, however, produced early on, from about 1950 through into the 1960s.
John Lawrence and others in a contribution to the Festschrift honouring Roy in 1995 give something of the flavour of the Crowson contribution when they say (and I quote) 'Crowson's work represents much more than a synthesis of the ideas of previous workers, since it involves the accumulation of a great number of original observations and unique interpretations over a period of more than 50 years', and 'The Natural classification of the Coleoptera ... was based on detailed morphological studies of adults and larvae representing the largest number of taxa ever sampled in this way'. What I had to say when refereeing a grant application from Roy in relatively recent years adds to this (and I quote again) 'To what he has achieved in context one has only to consider the size of the Order of the Coleop[tersa (some 4000,000 described species currently accepted as valid), and the very different was in which these numerous species were classified prior to his seminal contributions. The recognition by Crowson, for example, of the now universally accepted Cucujoiformia as a monophyletic group may be considered as one of the major classificatory innovations in systematic biology...'
How did Roy manage to do all of this? OIn the long run this is a question for historians of science, and I will do no more than make a few obvious suggestions here. Clearly his achievements would not have been possible without a fine intellect. His dedication, drive, and commitment to scholarship, as well as his intellectual honesty and integrity are also likely have been important. The valued and invaluable support of his wife Betty, and perhaps also the general mix of personal and professional circumstances that meant that he was not too readily diverted or side-tracked, are other factors not be overlooked.
Re-reading the thoughtful essays on Roy's contributions to systematics and to the classification of Coleoptera in particular in the pages of his festschrift volumes I note that, however appreciative, they are nevertheless coloured (perhaps inevitably) by issues of particular contemporary concern and viewpoints that are currently fashionable but by no means bound to persist, In all probability, we must wait a while for a fuller and more profound appreciation of Roy's life works. When this does arrive, my prediction is that recognition of his achievements in classifying beetles will remain undiluted, while his reputation as a seer and something of a prophet will be greatly enhanced.
To end my tribute, I must say that Roy has made life for his fellow British coleopterists a privileged and easy one. For example, to come from 'the land of Crowson' has always meant to me that one could expect a measure of instant if unearned respect from insect systematists when visiting other parts of the world. Thanks to Roy the systematics of 'Gods favoured creatures' did not readily subside in Britain through the middle and later years of this century, leaving the contributions of our leading 19th century coleopterists such as David Sharp merely a distant testament. As a giant among coleopterists, a giant among systematists and a giant among scholars Crowson has given us inspiration as well as much to celebrate'. (MD 4/02, 1/22)