Born in Nottingham of Scottish parents and educated at Govan. He intended to go to Glasgow University but was prevented and took up coach-building during the day while studying the natural sciences in the evening. The knowledge he gained in this way eventually enabled him to give up coach-building and obtain a post in the Museum at Keighly. Subsequently he transferred to Warrington Museum where he remained for the rest of his career. For much of his life Dunlop was handicapped by both lameness and deafness. Dunlop was particularly interested in field work and in marinezoology. He was an active member of the Warrington Field Club and of the Warrington Literary and Philosophical Society and contributed many papers to the journals of both societies. His entomological work covered a wide range and led him to compile the regular entomological reports in the journal of the Field Club. His best known work in this field is perhaps his list of the Aculeate Hymenoptera of the Warrington district. He also published ‘A note on some inhabitants of a badger's nest’ which included beetles, in EMM., 46, 1910, pp.15-16, and he is mentioned by W.E.Sharp, The Coleoptera of Lancashire and Cheshire, 1908, p.15. Many beetles collected by Dunlop are in the general collection at Doncaster Museum (I am grateful to Peter Skidmore for this information). Dunlop was an ardent supporter of the North Western Naturalists Union. There is an obituary with a portrait in North Western Naturalist, 8, 1933, pp.142-145, 163. (MD 9/02)
Dates
1868 - 3 April 1933