Thursday 26 January 2017

Charles Swinhoe

Charles Swinhoe


Colonel Charles Swinhoe (27 August 1838, Calcutta[1] – 2 December 1923[2]) was an English naturalist and lepidopterist, who served in the British Army in India. He was one of the eight founders of the Bombay Natural History Society and a brother of the famous naturalist Robert Swinhoe.
Swinhoe was commissioned ensign in the 56th Regiment of Foot without purchase in 1855, serving in the Crimea and reaching India after the 1857 Mutiny. He exchanged into a lieutenantcy in the 15th Foot without purchase in 1858 and returned to the 56th Foot in 1859, transferring to the Bombay Staff Corps later the same year. He was at Kandahar with Lord Roberts in 1880, and collected 341 birds there and on the march back to India. These were described in The Ibis (1882:95-126). He was promoted lieutenant-colonel in 1881 and colonel in 1885.
He was a keen shikari and had shot 50-60 tigers. He was a member of the British Ornithologists' Union. He collected insects, chiefly Lepidoptera from Bombay, Poona, Mhow and Karachi districts. He contributed papers to The Ibis on the birds of southern Afghanistan and central India, and donated 300 bird skins from each country to the British Museum. While at Mhow he collaborated with Lieutenant H. E. Barnes on the birds of central India. (Ibis 1885:62-69, 124-138) He also wrote to theAnnals and Magazine of Natural History. Along with E. C. Cotes he published a Catalogue of the Moths of India (Calcutta, 1887–89) He had one of the largest collections of Indian Lepidoptera at the time (40,000 specimens of 7000 species and 400 new species described by him), and completed the Lepidoptera Indica series after the death of Frederic Moore in 1907. He also wrote A revision of the genera of the family Liparidae which covered 1130 entries. After retirement he settled at Oxford and received an honorary M.A. for his work in entomology. The Entomological Society of France made him an honorary member.[2][3]

Born in Calcutta, West Bengal, India on 27 Aug 1838 to Robert Swinhoe and Caroline Anderson. Charles married Susan Day and had 12 children. 
Charles married Fanny Mildred Coulson. He passed away on 2 Dec 1923 in Avonmore Rd West Kensington London, Middlesex, England.
Parents
Robert Swinhoe 1798-1845 and Caroline Anderson 1810-1845

Spouse(s)Susan Day 1840-1906
                  Fanny Mildred Coulson Unknown-1938
Children

Violet Lena Biddle
Charlton Swinhoe 1862-1895
Emily Swinhoe 1864-1864
Caroline Swinhoe 1865-1867
Harry Swinhoe 1866-1867
Florence Swinhoe 1867-1922
Ernest Swinhoe 1869-Unknown
Swinhoe 1871-Unknown
Albert Swinhoe 1872-1872
Charles Deesa Swinhoe 1873-Unknown
Susan Louisa Swinhoe 1875-1883
Patty Gertrude Swinhoe 1876-Unknown

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