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 ascending Dates Biography
BRUCE, W.S.

See A. Thornley ‘On some Coleoptera from the summit of Ben Nevis, collected by Mr W.S.Bruce’ in Ann. Scottish nat. Hist., Jan. 1896, 28-37. The Museum Register at the RSM records that a collection of 195 insects from the summit of Ben Nevis, was given by Bruce in 1896-7. (MD 12/01)
BROWNING, F. Robert

Duff (1993), 6, records that Browning ‘was apparently associated with the Horniman Museum, Forest Hill, but he collected in Somerset (mainly near Axbridge) in 1940-41, 1943, 1949-50 and 1952, presumably during periodic visits or holidays. Browning lived in Kent and at one time was working at the Dept. of Biology, Kent College, Pembury. The whereabouts of Browning’s collection is not known to me, but may still exist. Some of Browning’s records, supposedly from ‘Cross, nr. Axbridge’ (some 12km from the sea), are of more-or-less strictly coastal species and in fact probably originated from the vicinity of Burnham-on-Sea... [they] are taken from W.A. Wilson’s card index in Taunton Museum. (MD 10/03)
BROWNE, W.A.F.

Listed in the Ent.Ann., 1860, as interested in Coleoptera. Garth Foster tells me that he was the grandfather of Prof. W.A.Balfour-Browne and that he was Queens Visitor in Lunacy and first Superintendent of the Crichton Institution, Dumfries. Mentioned (but not named) in British Water Beetles and Other Things, 1962, p.6. (MD 12/01)
BROWNE, J. Montgomery

Published 'Recently recorded Irish Coleoptera', in British Naturalist, 1, 1891, 113-115, and several notes in the Irish Naturalist in 1892 and 1893, including Helodes phellandrii new to the Dublin list, and Thiamis suturalis new to Ireland. (MD 12/01)
BROWNE, H.W.

Listed in the Ent.Ann. in 1857 and 1860 as interested in British Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. His address is recorded as 1 Westbourne Street, Hyde Park Gardens, (London). (MD 12/01)
BROWNE, F.H A collection of insects in twelve drawers was given to the Buckinghamshire County Museum at Aylesbury by the Reverend F.H.Browne (BCM 612.05). It is no longer maintained separately. The material was collected in Buckinghamshire and elsewhere. FGS. (MD 12/01)
BROWNE, F.G.

Harvey et al. (1996), 30, list a collection of typescripts, manuscripts, 300 letters, collecting locations, drawings, etc. related to wood boring beetles, in the NHM. (MD 1/22)
BROWNE, Balfour See BALFOUR-BROWNE
BROWN, Thomas

Harvey et al. (1996), 30, list a single sheet ‘Coleoptera for and from the British Museum, 1893’ in the NHM. (MD 12/01)
BROWN, Robert 21 December 1773 - 10 June 18568

Musgrave (1932) records that Brown was a botanist who visited Australia as naturalist on board the Investigator commanded by Captain Flinders. He left England in 1801 and was in Australia until 1805. He visited the Islands in Bass Straits, the settlements of Port Dalrymple and Hobart in Tasmania, and the Hawkesbury, Hunter and Williams River Valleys in New South Wales. He made collections of insects which were described by W.S. Macleay (1819), W. Kirby (1818) and W.E. Leach (1819). These included Coleoptera, and Kirby named Cetonia brownii after him. There is a detailed account of Brown and the voyage, by P.I. Edwards in J. Soc. Biblphy nat. Hist., 7, 1976, 385-407. (MD 12/01)

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