Born in Somers Town the son of James Edward Waterhouse, a Solicitor’s Clerk and keen entomologist. Commenced his career as an architect but pursued natural history and particularly entomology as a hobby no doubt as a result of the influence of his father. He is mentioned frequently by Stephens (1828) and when the ESL started in 1833 he was appointed the first curator. There is some debate as to who exactly was responsible for founding the ESL but in Proc.ESL, 1888, p.lxxvi, C.O.Waterhouse attributed it to an idea put forward in his own home by his father.

Middle of the three sons of George Robert Waterhouse. He joined the ZSL as Librarian on 1 February 1872 and remained in this post until the end of 1912. His major work was the preparation of a new catalogue of the library, which was published in 1902. Like his father and brothers Frederick was also keen on beetles and in 1879 published his only article on this subject: ‘Descriptions of new Coleoptera of Geographical Interest, collected by Charles Darwin, Esq.’ In J.LSL., 14, 1879, pp.530-534.

Youngest of the three sons of G.R.Waterhouse. The obituary of his father in EMM., 24, 1888, p.234 mentions that he was at one time Entomological Curator to the Marquis of Ripon, and that is certainly where he lived for much of his life. Mentioned in the Gorham diary at Birmingham and the Janson diary at Cambridge eg. 7 April 1873. There is a letter of 9 September 1908 in the Sharp correspondence at Liverpool, vol.2, p.356. He published 16 notes on beetles in EMM.

No other family could surely boast such an intimate involvement with beetles. Five members over three generations were Coleopterists, four by profession, and, through marriage, they were related to the Griesbachs with four more, and the Ryes with two. Mackechnie Jarvis (1976) illustrates a family tree (p.100). Details of each member are included below but I have added this additional note because of the confusion which surrounds the fate of their collections According to Waterhouse et.al.(1906) p.

His collection of British Lepidoptera and Cerambycidae was sold by Stevens on 12 March 1888 (Chalmers-Hunt (1976) p.120). There are 60 boxes of mss in the NHM but Harvey et.al. (1996) state that these are mainly concerned with Lepidoptera. FESL 1886-1914. (MD 12/04)

There are specimens bearing this name in the Kauffman collection of Cerambycids at Manchester. (MD 12/04)

Subscriber to the Coleopterist. 1999-2002 who lived in Essex. ( Information from Peter Hodge). (MD 12/04)

The HDO acquired 12 ‘fine’ Dynastidae and Lucanidae in 1899 collected by Ward in Darjeeling. (Smith (1986) p.158). (MD 12/04)

Little seems to be known about Walton who was a specialist in Curculionidae. He published 15 articles on this group between 1837 and 1852, and also a separate booklet titled List of British Curculionidae with synonyma in 1856. His insects were sold by Stevens on 24 March 1863 (Chalmers-Hunt (1976) p.101) when the HDO purchased several lots including a large box of Staphylinidae (Smith (1986) p.158) and the NHM purchased ‘as complete a set as possible... of the specimens which had been the subject of his papers...