Educated at Wigan Grammar School and Oxford University, and made his career in the Civil Service (GCHQ). Moved to Cheltenham in December 1955, living at Benhill on the S.W. edge of the town in 1960-71 and then nearer the centre in Lansdown. He remained in Gloucestershire until 1988 when he retired to Embleton in Cumberland.
Before moving north Atty published various notes and articles in the Ent.mon.Mag. including: 'Lathridius bifasciatus (Reitter) in Surrey' (91, 1955, 237); 'Lyctus brunneus (Stephens) etc. in Lancashire' (96, 1960, 239); 'Harmonia quadripunctata (Pont.) in Gloucestershire' (97, 1961, 152); 'Nudobius lentus (Grav,) in Gloucestershire' and 'Lathridius bifasciatus (Reitter) etc. in Gloucestershire' (100, 1964, 93 and 192); 'The beetle occupants of a tussock, (103, 1967, 184, recorded a remarkable 1244 beetles of 101 species); 'The foodplants of Cassida viridis Lot.' and 'Gloucestershire beetles: a few records and an appeal, (105, 1969, 24 and 199); 'A further locality for Epiphanis cornutus Esch., 'Trichius fasciatus L, in Gloucestershire' and 'Coleoptera of Gloucestershire' (118, 1982, 161,162 and 174).
By 1983 he had accumulated 25,000 records for 1610 species of which some 250 were additions to the county list, and he wrote and self-published The Coleoptera of Gloucestershire, 136 pp., (lists 2049 species with a single sheet update in 1986 listing a further 30 or so species mostly collected by Keith Alexander and John Owen). Following his move to Cumberland his collecting and research there led to his publishing A Checklist of Cumbrian Beetles in April 2015 (Carlisle Natural History Society) which incorporated material previously published in Entomologist's Rec.J.Var., 1996, Col., 2009 and Carlisle Natural History Society Journal, 2010.
In 1982 Atty informed me that he had a small personal collection, and a large reference collection. The latter, housed in 30 drawers and 7 boxes was given to him in 1970 by E.G. Neal and H.K. Airy Shaw (mainly Gloucestershire), and included a comprehensive collection of British species which originally belonged to G.S. Kloet, and their notebooks.
There are 12 pages of correspondence with Colin Johnson in MUNHM (Box 14) dated 1993-96.
Member of the Balfour Browne Club 1983.
(MD 8/17, 1/22)