Born at Plymouth and after studying medicine at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, went to Edinburgh where he graduated MD in 1812. He immediately abandoned this profession, however, in order to take up natural history and in 1813 he was appointed Assistant Librarian , and had risen by 1821 to be Keeper of the Natural History Department in the British Museum. Here he studied molluscs in particular, many of his publications being on this subject, but he also worked on the bird and entomology collections which he re-arranged according to the ‘natural’ system of Cuvier and Latreille.

Lived in Scarborough and is described by G.B.Walsh in his article on Coleoptera in Natural History of the Scarborough District (c.1950, p.196) as ‘the first Scarborough Coleopterist, was contemporaneous with T.Wilkinson, the well-know Lepidopterist, and was said by E.C.Rye to be the first beetle-collector in Europe’. Exactly what Rye meant by this is unclear since Lawson was clearly not the first chronologically. He was presumably being complimentary, but the description is also surprising in this context given the wealth of more famous names.

Born at Tuddenham, Suffolk and became a missionary in East Africa where he travelled extensively and acquired a reputation for his ability to speak the Swaheli language. After the abolition of slavery in 1897 he was appointed Commissioner of Slavery for Zanzibar in the Administration of Sir Lloyd Matthews. Last was not a Coleopterist as such but a very active collector. H.W.Bates named two species after him Epomis lasti and Chlaenius lasti (from among many new species sent to him by Last from Zanzibar, see EMM., 22, 1886, pp.189-197 and 23, 1886, pp.9-13).

Gave Lepidoptera and Coleoptera from Calcutta to Glasgow in 1883 (1883-88). Lived at 9 Port Street, Anderston, Glasgow. (Information from Geoff Hancock). (MD 11/03)

Keith Lewis tells me that there are specimens collected by Langton in his collection. (MD 12/06)

Published two articles on beetles in the Irish Naturalist, 6, 1897: ‘Coleoptera taken at Tempo, Enniskillen’ (p.57) and ‘Tachypus pallipes, a beetle new to Ireland’ (p.58). (MD 11/03)

Lived in Beckenham, Kent and had a special interest in Coleoptera. (MD 11/03)

Published ‘Dytiscus marginalis in a drapers shop’ in Sci. Gossip, 23, 1887, p.19. (MD 11/03)

Published several articles on Coleoptera in Ent. in the 1890s including ‘Homaloplia ruricola’ (25, 1892, p.321), ‘Callidium variabile’ (27, 1894, p.321) and ‘Cicindela germanica in Dorset’ (30, 1897, p.248). (MD 11/03)