Father of Charles William (see above) and Edward Robert (see above). There is a surprising dearth of published information about Dale who was one of the foremost entomologists of his day and who died aged eighty having devoted most of his adult life to entomological pursuits. The existence of a large amount of manuscript and other personal material relating to Dale in the HDO makes this the more surprising. He was the son of wealthy landowners and received his education at Cambridge where he became MA in 1818.
Dale was a friend of J.F. Stephens who makes numerous references to him in his Illustrations of British Entomology, 1828-1846, and of John Curtis who refers to him frequently in his British Entomology, 1824-1840. Of his friendship with the latter the writer of Dale's obituary in EMM, 8, 1872, 255-56, stated ‘it is in connection with John Curtis that the name of J.C. Dale will be handed down to generations of entomologists yet unborn. In the ‘British Entomology’ his name is on almost every page, and it was from his collections that Curtis derived a vast portion of the material from which his elaborate work was drawn up. The two worked hand in hand, and their names came to be considered as almost synonyms’. This statement needs to be considered, however, in the light of a letter from Dale to A.H. Haliday dated 6 February 1833, quoted by G. Ordish, John Curtis and the Pioneering of Pest Control (1974): ‘I see Ellis has Curtis's book at a reduced price now and I fear C. has made a sorry affair of his speculation as I always feared he would, but he thought different then’. The references to Dale in both publications make extensive mention of his Coleoptera collections and note that he retained his boyhood enthusiasm for entomology, and a good memory for captures made many years earlier, right up until the time of his death. He is also mentioned by Dawson (1854), 37,44 and 160.
Dale's entomological interests extended to all orders. He published his first note, on Lepidoptera, in MNH, 3, 1830, 332-34, and this was followed by some 83 further notes and articles covering a wide range of topics. Many of his general notes, and several specific ones, refer to Coleoptera. Perhaps his most important published work on beetles was the ‘Catalogue of the Coleopterous Insects of Dorsetshire’, in Nat., 2, 1837, 408-415, and 3, 1838, 2-18. Dale's collections passed to his sons, and subsequently a large part of them was acquired by the HDO, where they are maintained separately together with a large amount of supporting manuscript and other material. The Dalean collection was housed in 33 cabinets when it was received at Oxford in 1906, of which five cabinets were devoted to Coleoptera. Included in the latter are four drawers of Wollaston beetles from Madeira, Cape Verde, Canary Islands and St. Helena. Smith (1986), 72-73 lists the more important items in the manuscript collection including the following: entomological diaries for 1815, 1835-65, 1860-72; a number of notebooks and calendars covering the years 1807-12, and 1827-30; a list of localities ‘entomologized’ 1800-69; catalogue of his cabinet of British insects; catalogue of all orders of British insects in his cabinets; cut copy of Curtis's Guide indicating species taken by him and also in whose collection species may be found (based on 1829 edition); notes on contents of letters received and acted upon; his will; and some 5,000 letters from 287 correspondents (includes correspondence of C.W.Dale). Simms (1968) mentions material from him in the W.C. Hey collection at York.
Elected a member of the first ESL on 25 June 1822, and was one of the original subscribers to Denny (1825). There are obituary notices in EMM., 8, 1872, 255-56 (Anonymous); Ent., 6, 1872, 56, (E. Newman); Proc.ESL., 1872, p.c (J.O.Westwood), and Petites Nouv. Ent., 4, 1872, 197. Gilbert (1977) p.83 also lists a reference in Accentuated list of British Lepidoptera, (Anonymous), 1858, xiii-xiv, which I have not seen. (MD 5/02, 12/21)