Well-known Irish entomologist who worked at the Science and Art Museum, Dublin (now the National Museum of Ireland) from 1892 to 1923. He was appointed Technical Assistant in 1904 and Assistant Naturalist, in place of G.H.Carpenter, a few months later. His first publications concentrated mainly on Coleoptera and appeared in the Irish Naturalist from 1892 (listed in ryan et al. (1984) pp.64-67. These led to the work for which he is best known by Coleopterists: 'A List of the Beetles of Ireland' which he wrote with the Rev. W.F.Johnson, and which appeared in Proc.R.Irish Academy, 3rd series, VI (4), 1902, pp.535-827. He also worked on other Irish insects, and published similar lists of Neuroptera (1910, with J.J.F.X.King), Hemiptera (1935) and fresh water mites (1944). In the last group he discovered and described more than forty species and sub-species from Ireland, and he was the author of several new genera. His friend B.P.Beirne, who wrote his obituary in EMM, 84, 1948, 167, stated: 'Halbert's chief personal characteristics were his unfailing good humour and cheerfulness. He was always ready to assist others and [I am]...only one of many who owe much to his continued guidance and encouragement. Halbert had many interests apart from entomology. He was an expert ornithologist, musician and chess-player. He had an extensive knowledge of literature and art. He amassed large collections of stamps and post-marks'. Halbert died at his home in Dalkey, Co. Dublin, after a long illness, and was survived by four sisters. There is another, longer obituary, also by Beirne, in Irish Naturalists Journal, 9, 1948, pp.168-171. Specimens from Halbert are in the H.Britten collection at Manchester. (MD 3/03)
Dates
30 August 1871 - 7 May 1948