Born at Aston, Birmingham and educated at King Edward VI school and the Central Technical College graduating in 1936. As an external student at the University of London he did a PhD on the Spider beetles, Ptinidae. Subsequently took up the Anobiidae and, after working for Dunlop during the war, joined the staff of Rentokil Ltd. where he became Scientific Director, a post he held for twenty seven years. Wrote several text books and articles on wood boring insects particularly beetles and termites, and also articles in EMM and elsewhere on other insects, eg. Lepidoptera, and Trichoptera on which he wrote an important work. Several notes cover woodboring beetles in Ireland and his work took him all over the world. To many Coleopterists he is probably best known for his Shire booklet Longhorn Beetles of the British Isles, 1987. His other books, of which he wrote 16, covered a diverse range of subjects from nesting boxes to postcards, Africa and Forests. Many of these were illustrated by his own drawings (more than 3000 published). He also contributed regularly to newspapers from the Kidderminster Shuttle to the Irish Times. There are 9 manuscript diaries and notebooks in the NHM covering the period 1937-1957 and Pedersen (2002) p.126 records correspondence with C.J.Wainwright in the RESL. There is an obituary by Peter Bateman in Antenna, 15(2), 1991, pp. 60- 61, which includes a photograph.,FRES and a founder member of the Society of Wildlife Artists. There is an obituary by Peter Bateman in Antenna, 15(2), 1991, pp.60-61, which includes a photograph. (MD 3/03, 11/09)
Dates
b. 1910