THORNLEY, Alfred

Born near Preston and educated at Manchester Grammar School and Merton College, Oxford. He was ordained in 1879 and worked in several parishes in Nottingham, including South Leverton, near Retford, until relieved of parochial work to take up a position training teachers of natural history. Not long after he found himself responsible for supervising the teaching of this subject in more than 700 schools throughout Nottingham and Leicestershire. In 1922 he was appointed Chaplain and Professor of Economic Entomology at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, but in 1925 he retired to live in Cornwall. There he worked with his second wife, Marjorie (nee Fulleylove), for fifteen years to collate all former lists of Cornish insects and to add to them. Although Thornley’s main interest was in the Diptera (19,000 specimens out of the 26,000 comprising his collection in the NHM), Walsh (1956) states that knowledge of Nottinghamshire Coleoptera at that time was ‘due mainly’ to him and he is mentioned in E.C.Riggall’s ‘Address’. These stem in particular from the articles ‘Lincolnshire Coleoptera’ he published with W.Wallace in Trans. Lincolnshire Nat.Union 1, 1907 to 3, 1915. He published at least four articles on Coleoptera from the summit of Ben Nevis one of which: ‘On some Coleoptera from the Summit of Ben Nevis, collected by Mr W.S.Bruce’ in Ann.Scot.Nat.Hist., January 1896, pp. 28-37 appears to have been the inspiration for J.W.Tutt’s only publication on Coleoptera. There is a small collection of Coleoptera from various localities world-wide which he made when travelling with Mrs Imray (who also presented specimens in 1903) in the HDO (Smith (1986) p.154) and another collection of beetles made by Thornley at Nottingham Natural History Museum which includes material from William Evans and J.J.Walker. His obituary in EMM. 83, 1947, p.110 states ‘Parts of the comprehensive card index [of Cornish insects which he made with his wife] were sent to the British Museum (Natural History) with Thornley’s collection, journals and notebooks in September, 1946, but some sections remained for completion with his friend Miss Marion Grace Hocken FZS, FRES of Lelant, Cornwall’. Harvey et. al. (1996) p.205, however, state that only some loose leaf Cornish collecting notes are in the NHM. The locality of the thirteen diaries, which his obituary mentions that he kept while living in Cornwall, is not known. There is correspondence with C.J.Wainwright dated 1898-1937 in the RESL (Pedersen (2002) p.130)). FESL from 1892; FLS from 1895 There is a brief biography in Proc.RESL (C) 12, 1948, p.64 and an obituary in The Times, 8 January 1947 (which incorrectly states that his collection comprised 126,000 specimens). (MD 12/04, 12/06, 11/09)