Leicester Coleopterist who was active in the county from 1922 to 1972. As a boy was friendly with Donald Tozer, and Lott (2009) p.27 records that the two grew up in the same neighbourhood and shared an interest in collecting butterflies and moths. ‘One day they went to Leicester Museum ton see the insect collections on display in the public gallery, where they met S.O.Taylor, who was curating the beetle collections... Taylor persuaded them both to take up beetles.’ Henderson became a laboratory technician at Loughborough Training College and was a keen amateur astronomer and gardener, and a passionate photographer of wild orchids throughout Britain and beyond. Lott records that he seems to have stopped collecting regularly in the 1950s. Although he was persuaded to do some collecting in the sixties and early seventies by the activities of the Loughborough Naturalists Club.’ This is presumably when he met F.A. Hunter and H.A.B. Clements in Wolverhampton (Fenscore National Database). Henderson’s collection suffered significant pest damage before it passed to the Leicester Museum on his death (Acc. No. Z90.1983). Lott describes it ‘as beautifully mounted and labelled in a uniform style.It is likely that he systematically relabelled his collection late in his collecting career. There is some evidence that he inadvertently got some labels mixed up, so they have to be interpreted with care’ (p.51). Lott includes a colour photograph of Henderson out collection with Donald Tozer, several charming water-colours of beetles which he painted, and a photograph of one of the very neat original drawers from his collection complete with hand-written labels. (MD 3/03, 11/09)
Dates
c.1907 – 8 February 1983