Born at Pencraig, Herefordshire. He entered his father's mercantile business in Rio de Janeiro where he lived from 1838 until moving back to this country in 1854. During this period he made only one return visit to England, in 1843, when he was married. Fry was an enthusiastic Coleopterist specialising in Cerambycidae and Curculionidae in particular. He not only did a considerable amount of collecting himself but also added to his collections through purchases. Thus, he acquired Parry's collection of Cerambycids, large numbers of specimens collected by Doherty, Wallace and others, and most importantly, Whitehead's specimens from Kinabalu including all the types described by H.W.Bates. After his death his collection, amounting to some 200,000 specimens, passed to the NHM. An earlier donation, of 315 beetles from Brasil, was made in 1857 (1857.19; his address was given as West Green Lodge, Tottenham), and another 200 specimens were acquired by Liverpool Museum, via Cheltenham College, before 1880. Fry published only one note of which I am aware, an Observation on Fireflies, written with W.T.Evans, in Trans.ESL., (3)2, Proc, 1865, pp.101-102. He did not become involved in descriptive work but made his collections, housed in his home at Norwood, freely available to others, so that they are frequently mentioned in monographs, etc. (eg. Fowler and Arrow's volumes in the FBI series). There are obituaries in EMM., 41, 1905, p.119 and Trans.ESL., C, 1905, p.lxxxvi. (MD 12/02)
Dates
10 September 1821 - 26 February 1905