Biographical dictionary

The Biographical Dictionary of British Coleopterists is compiled and maintained by Michael Darby. The Dictionary can be accessed below, and see also the additional information provide by Michael:

Michael would be pleased to hear from anyone wishing to make corrections or alterations to the Dictionary, which will be fully acknowledged. Email Michael Darby or write to Michael at 33 Bedwin Street, SALISBURY, Wiltshire, SP1 3UT.

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Namesort descending Dates Biography
SHARP, William Ernest 1856 – 20 May 1919

Born at Sparkbrook, near Birmingham but moved to Cheshire when he was three and was educated at Birkenhead School. He would have gone to Oxford or Cambridge but was prevented by lack of means and instead joined his father’s business. Apart from entomology Sharp also painted in water-colours. His interest in insects began when he was a boy and he was for many years a member of the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society. Whilst there he wrote more than 30 notes in various journals many adding species to the Liverpool list. The Coleoptera of Lancashire and Cheshire was published in 1908 after he left the area (1899) to move to London. Once in London Sharp quickly joined the ESL but his health broke down following the death of his son in the first World War in 1916., and he moved to Crowthorne in Berkshire, the site of Wellington College. It was here that he wrote Common Beetles of the Countryside (published in both one- and four-volume formats) the work for which he is best known. He also published a number of notes in EMM and Tony Drane has kindly furnished me with a copy of a paper titled The Classification of Coleoptera: Historically considered (nd but c.1888, pp. 1-21) in his library.

Sharp’s main collection comprising some 20,000 specimens, was acquired by Liverpool Museum (D.7.8.19) but destroyed by a bomb during the Second World War. Manuscript material associated with it survives and includes 3 large volumes the first of which is inscribed A Catalogue of the British Coleoptera in my collection with notes thereon and dated 20 Aug 1905. Volume 1 lists numbers 1-1164; 2: numbers 1165-2257; and 3: numbers 2258-3304. The Museum also has 2 volumes of correspondence from amongst others E.A.Newery, David Sharp, George Champion, Edward Waterhouse, Norman Joy, C.E.Tottenham, Tomlin, William Wallace and Harry Britten. A file of Museum correspondence about the collection includes a letter from the University Library, Edinburgh stating that they have no 3 of Sharp’s ms volumes ‘Collecting Days’. Further beetle collections made by Sharp are in Bolton Museum (acquired via C.E.Stott on 22 November 1891); Perth Museum; the HDO (a set of British and Irish Staphylinidae, all named by him, together with a few beetles from Asia Minor and several European localities, and two Carabidae from the Falkland Islands (Smith (1986) p.149); the Grosvenor Museum, Chester (a collection of 232 specimens from Cheshire, Flintshire and Denbighshire donated in 1892 for the Kingsley Memorial Prize of the Chester Society of Natural Science, Literature and Art. Acc nos 4035-4265 (Hancock and Pettit (1981)). There are obituaries by W.W.Fowler in EMM., 55, 1919, p.268; Ent News, 31, 1920, p.149; and Lancs and Ches. Nat., 12, 1919, pp.65-66. (MD 11/04, 2/20)

SHARPE, J.S.

Published 'Some aquatic Coleoptera of the Dyffryn area of Merionethshire', based on a survey undertaken in June 1944, EMM, 80, 1944, 288-90, and a comprehensive 'Aquatic Coleoptera of Staffordshire', ibid., 81, 1945, 155-59. He is mentioned in Skidmore, P. & Johnson, C. (1969). (MD 1/22)

SHAW, Herbert Kenneth Airy 1902 – 19 August 1985

Born at Woodbridge, Suffolk, the son of a schoolmaster. Read classics at Corpus Christi, Cambridge but transferred to botany in 1923 obtaining his BA in 1924. Subsequently worked for much of his professional life at Kew where he specialised in the Euphorbiaceae. His interest in entomology developed after the second World War when he joined the Cotteswold Naturalist’s Field Club (1941) and the Amateur Entomologists Society (1943), and focussed on food plants in particular. He published some 50 notes in the EMM., including 13 on Coleoptera one of which added Platycis cosnardi, found by Robert Lewis’s sister in her Monmouth garden, to the British list (80, 1944, pp.204-205). Another interesting note concerned the finding of two examples of Phosphanus hemipterus in Ashdown Forest. (97, 1961, p.182).

David Atty records that Airy Shaw and E.G.Neal were collecting Coleoptera at Rendcomb and Daglingsworth in Gloucestershire, 1942-45, where they found 492 species and that in 1970 they gave to him their notebook and collection, housed in a 30 drawer cabinet and 7 boxes together with a comprehensive reference collection which had belonged to G.S.Kloet (Coleoptera of Gloucestershire, 1983, v.) (MD 11/04, 8/17)

 

SHEPHERD (also SHEPPERD), Edward Very little information survives about Shepherd who was a well-known collector of Coleoptera in his day and also Secretary of the ESL (1855-66). He shared the role for part of this time with E.W.Janson but their relationship cannot have been happy for Shepherd was one of the signatories to the document which was highly critical of Janson’s management of the Society’s collections and recommended his sacking. (Neave and Griffin (1933)). Smith (1986) p.150 records that the HDO acquired 22 Coleoptera by exchange from E. Shepherd in 1858. There are also Shepherd specimens (Staphylinidae only?) in the Mason collection at Bolton (marked with large bright blue circles) and in the D.G.Hall collection at the North Hertfordshire Museum (information from Trevor James). His library was sold by Stevens on 18 July 1893. (MD 11/04)
SHEPPARD (or SHEPPERD), Edward (R.?) 1816 – 8 September 1883 There is some confusion surrounding this name which is easily muddled with that of Edward Shepherd (see above) and Major E.Sheppard who was a Lepidopterist whose collection was sold after his death by Stevens on 25-26 March 1889 (with A.F.Sheppard’s collection). An obituary for Edward Sheppard in EMM, 20, 1883, p.118 mentions that he was a Collector of Customs in the port of London until two months before his death and that, ‘besides his general love of Nature, he, for many years, devoted considerable attention to Coleoptera, of which he formed a collection; but his ardour relaxed, and for a long time he had given up active participation in entomological pursuits, yet to the last he retained an interest in Entomology and Entomologists’. Presumably this is the E.R.Shepperd whose collection of Lepidoptera was sold by Stevens on 11 January 1884 (Chalmers-Hunt (1976) p.116). FES, FLS, FZS. At one time he was one of the eight members of the Entomological Club . (MD 11/04)
SHOPLAND Fowler (1912) mentions him as a collector of Cicindelidae at Karachi. Some records link his name with that of Bell. (MD 11/04)
SHORTALL, C.

He is listed by James,T.J. (2018) as providing a special contribution either in the form of a comprehensive site list or a substantial number of records (MD 1/22)

SHUCKARD, William Edward 1803 – 10 November 1868 Primarily a Hymenopterist but known by Coleopterists for the volume he published with illustrations by William Spry The British Coleoptera Delineated, consisting of figures of all the genera of British Beetles (1840, 1861). Little is known about Shuckard who was the son of the German landlord of the Old Ship Hotel, Brighton. His single obituary, by Edward Newman in Ent., 60, 1868, pp.180-182, mentions that he was educated at ‘first-class schools’ where he became ‘an excellent scholar and reader of old and rare books’ .Subsequently he became apprenticed in the book trade in both London and Germany but gave this up to be a writer and student of entomology in which he was first inspired by seeing a specimen of Cicindela campestris while rambling over the downs. Apart from his works on Hymenoptera he also published a translation of Burmeister’s Manual of Entomology in 1836, to which he added notes, and Chris Levitt, a descendant, tells me that he also translated a book on the management and habits of Cage Birds. His library was sold by Sotheby’s in 742 lots on 13-14 August 1863, and his Hymenoptera collections as part of the Devisgnes collection in 1868. FESL 1843, Vice President 1837-38, Council 1834, 1840, 1842. (MD 11/04)
SIDEBOTHAM, Joseph 1823 – 30 May 1885 Born near Hyde, Lancashire and after leaving school worked for a firm of calico printers in Manchester. Subsequently he became a partner in Strines Printing Company where he remained until he retired. His obituary in EMM., 22, 1885, p.46 states that he was ‘a born naturalist, and obtained much proficiency in Botany and Entomology, making important discoveries in the latter branch, especially in Coleoptera. Latterly he attended to other departments of science, and he published important papers on Astronomy, Microscopy and Photography’. He was also ‘known and respected in his magisterial capacity as a JP.’ In about 1785 he suffered badly from pneumonia and ‘frequent visits to the south of France became necessary in consequence’. Mentioned in the Gorham diary at Birmingham (eg. 1871) and the Janson diary at Cambridge (eg Dec. 1871). Doubt has recently been cast on the validity of some of Sidebotham’s rarer discoveries, sometimes recorded when collecting with ‘Wainwright’ or R.S.Edleston, eg. Peritelus griseus, Sibinia pellucens, Eusomus ovulum, Lebia marginata, Oxythyrea sticta ,etc. A note by Power in EMM, 1, 1865, pp.235-6, referring to Sidebotham’s record of Agriotes pilosus, is interesting in this respect: ‘Mr Sidebotham is in the habit of giving bottles to working men, that they may put into them anything which they may find; and from such a bottle this insect was obtained, having been taken near Manchester.’ Another find, Brachinus sclopeta, turned up from a bottle he had left with Mr Murton, a Lepidopterist, who lived at Silverdale. Sidebotham’s main collection is at Manchester. It amounts to 24,000 specimens and includes the first collection of J.K.Taylor and the collection of R.S.Edleston. Johnson (2004) pp.14-15 notes that the locality data is ‘variable, often poor. Some seemingly British or extremely rare British species might really be represented by French specimens, due to a confusion of material and localities’. Colour codes are used in the collection. There are also specimens collected by Sidebotham at Liverpool and Doncaster. (MD 11/04)
SINCLAIR, Magnus

Scottish Coleopterist. Published 'Some post-1970 records of Achypea opaca (L.) Silphidae', Col., 2(3), 1994, 81. See also Lyszkowski, R.M. (MD 1/22)

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