Born in Islington, London. He was a Church of England clergyman who emigrated to Australia in 1882 after periods firstly as a Civil Servant and later as Chaplain to the Bishop of Honolulu in the Hawaiian Islands (from end 1876). He died at Woodville Vicarage, Adelaide, South Australia.

Blackburn's interest in insects developed in his teens and was shared by his brother (John Bickerton Blackburn (1845-1881, a Lepidopterist). His first notes appeared in the Ent.Weekly Int., and when this failed he continued writing in the Weekly Entomologist, a magazine which he published himself, at first at Altrincham, Cheshire, and later in London. The Weekly Entomologist came to an end in November 1863 after 65 numbers had been published, and was immediately followed by the Ent.mon.Mag.,of which Blackburn was one of the original five editors. He quickly gave up this post however at the time of being ordained.

Although he did write on other orders Blackburn's main interest was the Coleoptera. He added several new species to the British list, and amongst many species he described as new to science - 3,069 from Australia alone! - was Apion ryei from the Shetlands (Ent.mon.Mag., 11, 1874, 126). In 1875 and 1876 he published a number of 'Outline descriptions of British Coleoptera in the Scottish Naturalist; and following his stay in Honolulu, a substantial paper with David Sharp titled 'Memoirs of the Coleoptera of the Hawaiian Islands' in the Scientific Transactions Royal Dublin Society, (2) 3, 1883-7, 119-(290). He also published on the beetles of the Sandwich Islands.

He had disposed of most of his collections some time before this. A British Coleoptera collection was auctioned by Stevens in 1870, and a second British collection was acquired by the South Australia Museum at Adelaide in 1909. Most of his types passed to the NHM in 1909 apart from 334 specimens (out of a total of 898 representing 419 species) being a 'selection' from his Hawaiian collection, which the Museum purchased in 1888. There is a typescript Index of Coleoptera type specimens in the Blackburn collection in the NHM.

There is a lengthy obituary by A.M. Lea in Transactions Royal Society South Australia, 36, l912, v-xi, including portrait and bibliography, and shorter accounts in the Ent.mon.Mag.,1912, 219, and Ent.News, 23, 1912,436. (MD 10/01)

Published ‘Occurrence in Britain of Lepyrus binotatus a genus and species new to our lists’ in Ent.mon.Mag., 6, 1869, 86. (MD 10/01)

Listed in the Ent. Ann., 1860, 4 as interested in British Coleoptera. No address is given. This may be the same Bissill who published ‘A fortnight at Hornsea, Yorks.' in Zoo., 17, 1859, 6697-98. (MD 10/01)

Born at Carlisle but moved while still a boy to Glasgow where except for a short period when he lived at Lewisham, near London, he resided for the rest of his life. A. Fergusson records in Ent.mon.Mag., 58, 1922, 279 that a journal existed at that time kept by Bishop when aged 14 which gave 'evidence that even at that early age his attention was turned towards the Coleoptera, of which in later years he became an enthusiastic collector and student'. In fact, he seems to have been collecting at even earlier age for E.C. Rye notes in the Ent. Ann., 1864, 32 a specimen of Carabus auratus taken on the Clyde by Bishop in 1857.

It was while in his teens that Bishop became acquainted with David Sharp who lived in Edinburgh at that time, and with whom he remained on close terms until their respective deaths less than twenty four hours apart. Certainly Bishop and Sharp were collecting together in 1864, for Rye records in Ent.Ann., 1865, 41-42: ‘Messers Bishop and Sharp have visited Rannoch with results that justify our expectations of very numerous additions to our list when the north is thoroughly worked, especially in new species'. As a result of this particular trip they added four new species to the British list including Agathidium rhinocerus, which Sharp described as new to science. Another new species described by Sharp, Gabrius bishopi, was presumably named after him. Fergusson records that 'During this period Mr Bishop also collected Coleoptera in the neighbourhood of Glasgow, and the writer can well remember the pleasure with which he related his early collecting experiences in such well known Glasgow localities as Tollcross sand pits, Possil Marsh and Cadder Wilderness. A good deal of his Glasgow collecting was done with the Rev. J.E. Somerville ... For many years after 1870 the increasing claims of business curtailed Mr Bishop's opportunities for collecting, but, although debarred from active participation in the pursuit of Coleoptera, his interest in the group still remained keen, and he acquired at various times the British Collections of the late Samuel Stevens, Alfred Beaumont, and George Guyon, as well as the foreign collection of Dr Heath'.

Bishop published only five short notes of which three appeared in the Ent.Weekly Int., 1862-3.

His extensive collections were left to his grandson T.G. Bishop, and his exotic collection is now in Glasgow University. There are also beetles collected by him in Manchester Museum's general collection.

He was a member and for some time Secretary of the Glasgow Naturalists Society, and became a member of the Glasgow Society at the meetings of which he showed beetles. The best obituary is that by Fergusson quoted above. (MD 10/01)