Born in Holborn where his father was a theological bookseller. From the age of ten collected insects in Highgate Woods and on Hampstead Heath. Became interested in chemistry and would have taken this up as a profession had he not become ill with tuberculosis following the death of his father. Subsequently he was nursed back to health by his mother. During this time he took up the violin and played with the Strand Theatre orchestra. In 1885 he was appointed Registrar of Marriages in the St. George’s District, a position he held for 28 years. Newbery’s interest in Coleoptera was first fired by Christopher Hall, who was a fellow member of the Strand orchestra. For many years he collected in the London districts and took his annual holiday collecting beetles elsewhere. His first article was ‘Bembidium iricolor, a species new to the British list’ (British Naturalist, 3, pp. 222-224) and he subsequently added a considerable number of others. In collaboration with W.E.Sharp he compiled in 1915 an Exchange List of British Coleoptera which was printed by J.H.Keys. His collection was given to Cambridge on 18 March 1921 on the understanding that it would not be amalgamated and was housed in a 20 drawer cabinet which he bought fron Janson and which had formerly belonged to Benjamin Cooke. The Insect Department Register states: ‘A collection formed by the donor the result of 40 years field work and study. The more recently added specimens have printed locality labels, the older ones bear numbered discs referring to registers of localities and other data. As a rule one or more of these discs bears in addition the name of the locality, which applies to all specimens bearing a similar number’. The collection includes the paratypes of Laccobius purpurascens and Thinobius pallidus and 100 specimens which were removed to it from Janson’s collection by the Museum authorities. The collection is accompanied by MS material including 7 volumes of locality registers which were given on 18 May 1926. The Register states: ‘In these registers ‘C’ indicates that it was determined according to Cox, ‘F’ Fowler. At a later date the donor made his determinations largely from the writings of continental experts and species so determined have no letter against them. ‘A’[plus a tick] indicates that EAN was entirely satisfied with det.’ These volumes include 15,650 entries and cover the period from 21 November 1876 to 24 June 1920. Notes were made of numerous specimens received from other collectors and there is a separate Register of the beetles ‘given to me by Mr C.G.Hall from various old collections’. With the collection there is also a marked up copy of Newbery and Sharp (1915) showing what it included at the time of the gift, and a marked up copy of Beare and Donisthorpe. Another copy of Newbery and Sharp (1915) which bears Newbery’s signature and was clearly his own copy, and which is marked up with complete and incomplete sets and dated 1917, is in my possession. Newbery also gave to Cambridge a box of named beetles from St Helena and the Canaries which had been given by T.V.Wollaston’s widow to Philip de la Garde and then passed by him to Newbery. This collection was accompanied by letters and other MS material including lists. Beetles collected by Newbery are in the A.H.May collection at the RSM; the D.G.Hall collection at Baldock; the C.G.Hall collection at Oldham from Hants. Surrey and London collected 1878-1890(information from Simon Hayhow); the Wilding collection at Liverpool and the Bedwell/Butler collection at Norwich (mainly continental material from 1850s. Information from Tony Irwin). Correspondence with W.E.Sharp is at Liverpool (Sharp Catalogue, vol 2, p.76; vol 3, p. 124) and Pedersen (2002) p.46 records a diary covering the period 1909-1922 (particularly for Yelverton, Devon) in the RESL. (MD 5/04).
Dates
17 February 1845 – 12 October 1928