Trained as a chemist but became better known as an economic entomologist who was much involved in the affairs of the Association of Applied Biologists of which he was President 1938- 1940. Gimingham's main work was in the study and development of insecticides first at Rothamstead and later at the Plant Pathology Laboratory at Harpenden. He played an important part in the setting up in 1942 of the Ministry of Agriculture's approval scheme for crop protection products and in running the quarantine scheme which was probably responsible for preventing the Colorado beetle establishing itself here. Apart from his official work Gimingham was also a collector of British insects particularly Coleoptera and Aphididae. His interest in the former lead to his becoming official Coleoptera Recorder for Hertfordshire and to his publication of 'Notes on the list of Hertfordshire Coleoptera’ in Trans. Hertfordshire Nat.Hist.Soc., 24, 1955, pp.136-145. He also wrote on beetles in Ireland (EMM., 78, 1942, p.51). His Coleoptera collection remained at the Plant Pathology Laboratory after his death.Duff (1993), p.4 records that Gimingham collected Coleoptera around Long Ashton and occasionally elsewhere in Somerset. FRES from 1919 serving on Council three times and as Vice-President in 1950. There is an obituary in Proc.RESL., 22 (C), 1957-58, p.74 and another in Ann.Appl.Biol., 46, 1958, pp.124-125 which I have not seen. (MD 1/03, 10/03)
Dates
1884 - 16 November 1957