236 The Presidents of the incolnshive Naturalists’ Union . 
The Insecta generally, and Coleoptera particularly, were 
Mr. Thornley’s special study, as long as he remained an active 
field worker for the Union. For many years he personally kept 
the Lincolnshire Registers for the whole Insecta ; yet his interest 
in every other branch of enquiry was unflagging. The work he 
did was prodigious, when it is remembered he had a scattered 
country parish on his hands, and was as active in it as in every- 
thing else he has undertaken. Yet the Lincolnshire and 
Nottinghamshire demands on his time were not enough to 
satisfy his energies. He at one time undertook a section of 
Scotch Coleoptera work, too. Without making any application 
for the position, he was pressed to give up his living, South 
Leverton, in order to take his present post, Superintendent of 
Nature Study in Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire, and finally 
did soin 1904. What was the gain of the two joint counties, the 
Union lost, without grudging it. Perhaps Mr. Thornley’s most 
remarkable characteristic is the way he encourages other 
workers with their feet hardly yet on the ladder of knowledge 
by personal example. The range of his unobtrusive 
information is a help, not a hindrance, in drawing out the best 
in other workers, for nothing comes amiss to him in Nature, 
thanks to his splendid scientific training at Oxford. Since he 
left us for practical field teaching, many a schoolmaster has 
assured us that ‘no better field lecturer and demonstrator can 
be imagined. He seems to know everything quite naturally— 
mammals, birds, plants, insects, snails and slugs, with the pests 
of the garden and field; all are alike to him in interest.” 
Another would-be beginner said: ‘I should like to know just 
as much science as Mr. Thornley has forgotten. It would be a 
good start for me or anyone,” 
Mr. Thornley was educated at Manchester Grammar 
School, and at Merton College, Oxford, M.A., 1882; First 
Class Final Honour School, Natural Science, 1879; Fellow of 
the Entomological Society, 1892; Linnean Society, 1895: 
Meteorological Society, 1910; Society for Psychical Research, 
1909; President of Nottingham Naturalists’ Society, 1897-1900; 
and of the L.N.U., 1go1-1902. He is the author of many short 
papers on Entomology “and Natural History subjects in The 
Naturalist, and in the Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine, and 
Annals and Magazine of Scotch Natural History. He was Editor 
of the Lincolnshire Entomology in The Victoria County History, 
which is not yet published we regret to say, 
