Biographical dictionary
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Name |
Dates | Biography | |
|---|---|---|---|
| STANLEY, Edward Smith, 13th Earl of Derby | 21 April 1775 – 30 June 1851 | Eldest son of of Edward, 12th Earl of Derby, by his first wife Lady Elizabeth Hamilton. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. Became MP for Preston and retained that position until 17 April 1839 when he inherited the Earldom on the death of his father and retired from public life. Stanley had already displayed an early interest in Zoology and now devoted himself to setting up a private menagerie and building up collections at his home at Knowsley, Lancashire. At the same time he contributed many papers to J.LSL of which he had been President from 1828-33. Stanley’s biography in DNB does not mention that he had any interest in insects and suggests that his collections (his museum contained more than 20,000 specimens) were of animals, birds, reptiles and fishes alone. However, the Entomology Registers of the NHM state that he presented to the Museum a large collection of Coleoptera in 1843 (1843.19) and eight further collections up to 1851 amounting to more than 500 specimens from Australia and South Africa. Some were collected by Mr J. Macgilliway (or M. Gillivray) who appears to have made a journey to those countries on HMS Fly. The contents of his house were sold by Stevens on 6-11 October 1851. (MD 11/04) | |
| STANDING, Peter Alfred | d.15 April 2002 | Peter Hodge tells me that Standing was a subscriber to the Coleopterist from 11 March 1999 and purchased a complete set of both it and the Coleopterists Newsletter, but that nothing further is known about him. (MD 11/04) | |
| STAINFORTH, Thomas | 1 March 1882- February 1944 |
Well known Yorkshire Naturalist. After leaving school he joined the staff of Hull Municipal Museum where he developed a particular interest in entomology. Studied at the Technical College in the evenings and took London University degrees in both Arts and Science. He gave courses of lectures to school children before joining the Forces in 1916. After the War he was assigned to the Hull Education Committee as a lecturer in Nature Study when he organised excursions to places in the neighbourhood, and this led in 1929 to a full-time position as a Lecturer at the Technical College. Joined the local Geological Society and the Scientific and Field Naturalists Club, and was Chairman of the Coleoptera and Arachnida Committee of the Yorkshire Naturalists Union. Stainforth's obituary by G.B Walsh in Annual Report of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, 1944, 7-8 (includes portrait photograph), states that he publisherd many papers and notes in the Society's Transactions including a list of East Yorkshire Coleoptera and an account of Yorkshire Donacines. Of this last group Walsh notes that 'even so late as last October' he showed a display of the Yorkshire species 'of which he had made a special study as regards life-history'. Walsh also makes clear that the Coleoptera were his particular interest 'and in company with is family and especially his son, he had traveled in France, Spain and Switzerland, collecting specimens'. Simms (1968) records a collection of 10,000 British insects, mostly Coleoptera mainly from East Anglia, in the Yorkshire Museum acquired in 1944. An earlier extensive collection deposited in the Hull Museum is referred to in the Annual report of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, 1944, as being destroyed by enemy action in 1943. This account also mentions that during the final stages of his terminal illness 'he expressed the wish to Mrs. Stainforth that his collections should be divided between our own and the Hull Museum. Realising that the piecemeal distribution of so much undetermined and understudied material between the two institutions would seriously reduce the scientific value of the collection and moreover defeat the intentions of Stainforth, the Hon. Curator [Walter Douglas Hincks] sought and obtained permission for the whole of the material to come to our museum. An arrangement was made with the sanction and approval of the Keeper, with Mr Fay, The Director of the Hull Museums, whereby a duplicate set of the Stainforth material, together with such other duplicates as we could spare, would be provided as soon as the material could be adequately studied, for the rehabilitation of the Hull Museum’s collections. The Stainforth collection was received during August, in many small and large boxes roughly computed to contain some 10,000 specimens. Most of these are Coleoptera including some valuable and interesting species together with some material in other orders, the whole being particularly important on account of the proportion of Yorkshire specimens.' I am grateful to Adam Parker for bringing Stainforth to my attention and for this reference. He reports the current situation that Stainforth’s collection 'has been split and some is certainly damaged'. (MD 12/21) |
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| STAIG, Robert A. | Lecturer in Zoology at Glasgow University in 1931 when he published The Fabrician Types of Insects in the Hunterian Collection at Glasgow University. Coleoptera Part 1, CUP, 1931. Geoff Hancock tells me that he has not come across his name in any other connection. (MD 11/04) | ||
| STACKHOUSE, Hugh | Published ‘An account of the Scarabaeus galeatus pulsator or the Deathwatch’ in Philos. Trans. R. Soc.Lond. 33, 1724, pp.159-162. (MD 11/04) | ||
| SPRY, William | Provided the illustrations for Spry and Shuckard, British Coleoptera Delineated consisting of figures of all the genera of British Beetles (1840, 1861). (See Shuckard, W.E.). (MD 11/04) | ||
| SPRAGUE, F.B. | A Doctor. Gave 536 British insects of all orders to the RSM in 1895 (1895-87). (MD 11/04) | ||
| SPITTLE, Ronald John | 1914-2004 | Lived in Devon at the time of his death and published 8 papers mainly on beetles in bird and animal nests. Also collected other orders. Johnson (2004, 2009) records that Spittle’s collection amounting to 1,000 specimens in 12 store boxes, mostly from Berkshire and the south, was accessioned by Manchester Museum in 1975. (MD 11/09) | |
| SPENCE, William | 1783 – 6 January 1860 | The well-known joint author with William Kirby of the Introduction to Entomology (1815-26). Born in Hull but little else appears to be known about his early life except that at the age of ten he was in the care of a clergyman who taught him botany. His interest in entomology developed when he was 22. It was Spence who first suggested the Introduction to Kirby having started a correspondence with him in 1805. Such was his fame after the publication of the Introduction that he was elected FRS in 1834. Spence published some 20 notes on entomology of which six include beetles. His first publication was ‘A Monograph of the British species of the genus Choleva’ in Trans.LSL, 9, 1815, pp.123-161 (being an abstract of an article which had earlier appeared in the Magazin der Entomologie published by Gernar from 1813-1821). Others were devoted to beetles attacking elm trees and to ‘Aepus fulvescens and other submarine Coleopterous Insects’ in Trans.ESL.,1, 1836, pp.179-81. His finds of beetles are mentioned by Stephens (1828) eg. p.60. Spence’s library was given to the ESL by his son in 1884. 12 letters signed by him (between 1807-1857) regarding the Introduction are in the NHM (Harvey et. al. (1996) pp.195-96. ‘Honorary English Member’ELS (a unique honour, made at the same time as Kirby was made Honorary Life President) 1833-59, President 1847-48, Vice President 1844-46, 1853; Council 1844, 1850, 1852-53. (MD 11/04) | |
| SOWERBY, George Brettingham | 12 August 1788 – 26 July 1854 | Conchologist brother of James, the well-known botanist. Published ‘An account of a new Scarabaeus, discovered by M.Neale and Observations on two other rare insects’ in Trans.ESL, 1, 1809, pp.246-47. (MD 11/04) |