1917.1 69 



J. Piatt Barrett. — Lepidoijterists will leain with regret that another link 

 in the older g-eneratiou of Entomologists was severed on Deeeniher 27th last by 

 the somewhat sudden death of Mr. J. Piatt Barrett. Born June 29th, 1838, in 

 a house on the moors near Marsden, Hv;ddex-sfield, he received his early- 

 education in his native village, removing to Doncaster in his thirteenth year to 

 become a pupil of the late Dr. Baker of the Institute for Deaf and Dumb, in 

 that town. About 1855 he became a tutor in the same institution, where he 

 remained until 1858, when he joined the staff of the then well-known Old Kent 

 Road Institution for Deaf and Dumb. On the removal of the pupils of 

 that institution to new premises at Margate, Barrett went to reside at 

 Birchington to be near his work, and where in his spare time he wrote a " History 

 of Birchington," which necessitated a good deal of research in Parish Registers, 

 etc. From thei-e he removed to Margate in 1888. He remained with the Deaf 

 and Dumb Institution until he was pensioned, after fifty years of teaching 

 in one school. In 1908 he returned to London, where he devoted his time largely 

 to the continuation of his study of the Lepidoptera which he had commenced 

 in the very early years of his life. He was always an enthusiastic collector and 

 breeder of the British Lepidoptera, and now, with his time entii'ely at his dis- 

 posal, it was his great delight to revisit the old well-known localities of his early 

 days to note the changes that had come to the entomological fauna in the 

 interval. Some of his favourite collecting havmts were Dvilwich, Chattenden, Box 

 Hill, and, further afield, the Kent coast. Probably few knew the Macro-Lepido- 

 ptera of these districts so well as he. His excursions for Aporia crataegi, Nonagria 

 sparganii, Acidalia ochrata, Agrotera nemoralis, and many other local species, 

 were a soiu'ce of great pleasure to him, and many of our collections are indebted 

 to his generosity for recent specimens of these and many other species. One of 

 the specialities of his early days was Acidalia strigilata, which he used to take 

 in some numbers in Folkestone Warren, but which since then appears to have 

 almost disappeared from our fauna. 



In 1894 Barrett went to Sicily for a prolonged visit to his son, and soon 

 became intensely interested in the Lepidoptera — especially the butterflies — of 

 that island. From that date to 1914, even at his advanced age, he made no fewer 

 than eight long visits to Sicily, and was there during the memorable earthquake 

 at Messina in 1908, when he miraculously escaped with his life, his daughter-in- 

 law and grandchild, sleeping, v/e believe, in the next bedroom to his, being 

 killed. The war alone put a stop to these expeditions. His interest in British 

 Lepidoptera, however, always remained, and from 1910 to 1916 he collected in 

 Scotland, Devonshire, Somerset, Cornwall, Lancashire, Dorset, Kent, etc., even 

 so recently as last year visiting Royston, Tring, Northfleet, Kingsdown, etc. 



Barrett was greatly interested, too, in the work of Entomological Societies, 

 and was one of the founders — practically the founder — in 1872 of the now 

 flourishing and important South London Entomological and Natural History 

 Society. The meetings were fii-st held in his house at Peckham, when he 

 acted as the Secretary, becoming the third President, in 1877. During his 

 residence in London he was a regular visitor and exhibitor at its meetings, 

 and at the close of the one held so recently as November 9th last, the 



