Very little appears to have been written about Tomlin who is probably better known for his work on conchology than on beetles. There is a short and un-informative obituary in Proc.RESL., 19(C)., 1954-55, pp.69-70 but no other of which I know. His first interest appears to have been Lepidoptera which were the subject of his first publication in Ent.16, 1883, p. 162. What follows is mostly taken from some notes kindly given to me by Adrian Amsden. Tomlin did most of his entomological work in Glamorgan whilst a teacher in the Llandaff Cathedral School 1890-99 and it was work done during this period that led to the publication of one of the works for which he is best known amongst Coleopterists: ‘The Coleoptera of Glamorgan’ (in Trans. Cardiff Nat.Soc.). (This followed earlier works on Coleoptera in the Cardiff district in EMM. from 29,1893, and ‘Coleoptera of the Llandaff District’ in Trans.Leics.Lit.Phil.Soc. 5, 1899, pp.187-91) He then moved to Darley Dale where he remained until 1902. He was able to spend more time and money on entomology and conchology after benefiting under the wills of relatives and in 1906 moved to Reading on getting married. In 1922 he moved to St Leonards-on-Sea by which time he seems to have been concentrating almost entirely on conchology, although the Woolhope Naturalists Field Club did publish his Herefordshire Coleoptera from 1949. His main collection of 83,000 specimens is at Cardiff and includes a number of other collections which he either purchased or which were given to him: Phytophaga and Curculionidae of Stephen Barton, mostly from Bristol, part of the collection of Hadfield of Newark, and the Staphylinidae of George Robert Crotch, were all purchased at Stevens in 1899; Amsden’s notes indicate that E.G.Elliman’s Staphylinidae, including many specimens from the Chesham area, were given to him in 1929 but there is a receipt for their purchase for £14 together with a letter in the Museum collection. William Chaney’s collection which included specimens from George C. Champion and that of J.S.White who lived at Droylsdon were both gifts. A few specimens collected by Tomlin are in the D.G.Hall collection at North Hertfordshire Museums (Information from Trevor James). A collection from the Forest of Dean is in the Dyson Perrins collection at Birmingham and there are some specimens in the general collections at Doncaster and Manchester. Hancock and Pettit (1981) mention that there is also a Sicilian collection, 1906-1914, at Manchester acquired either via Hincks, W.D. or Leeds Museum (post war) and that it is accompanied by lists and letters from E.A.Newbery about certain specimens. A ms list (in triplicate) of Beetles taken in Sicily by J.R.le B. Tomlin in March and April 1911 is amongst the Sharp material at Liverpool (D.7.8.19). The Sharp correspondence, vol 1, in the same museum contains 2 letters from Tomlin (p.238). There are photographs of Tomlin collecting with Norman Joy and George Champion in the NMW. FESL from 1897 (Council 1911-13). (MD 12/04)
Dates
1864 – December 1954