145 



3n nDcmoriam. 



H. H. CORBETT, 1S56-1921. 



For the first time in its history The Yorkshire Naturalists' 

 Union has lost by death a President whose election was so 

 recent that he had no opportunity to take up the reins of 

 office. Less than five days of the new year had gone by 

 when the sad intelligence was circulated that Dr. Corbett 

 had passed away. His tall, spare, active figure and genial 

 personality will be greatly missed, not only in the town of 

 Doncaster, but wherever naturalists are wont to foregather. 



Herbert Henry Corbett was born in 1856 at Besses o' th' 

 Barn, and at that place, Alder- 

 ley Edge, Cheadle Hulme and 

 Levenshulme, he spent his early 

 years under the parental roof. 

 His father was an architect, and 

 desired the son to follow the 

 same profession, but, finding it 

 uncongenial, he entered upon the 

 study of medicine at Owen's 

 College, Manchester. In 1888 

 he became M.R.C.S., and later 

 joined the British Homoeopathic 

 Society. For a time he was 

 resident assistant surgeon at the 

 Convalescent Hospital, Cheadle, 

 and, successively an assistant m 

 the Liverpool neighbourhood, 

 and in Bolton, from which place 

 he came to Doncaster in 1888. 

 He was then well known as a 

 lepidopterist who had paid considerable attention to the 

 usually neglected 'micros.' His first published note, written 

 when he was in his twentieth year, is on Geometra papilionaria, 

 and appeared in The Entomologist for 187G. He contributed 

 numerous records to Mr. G. T. Porritt's ' Yorkshire Lepidop- 

 tera,' and also to Dr. J. W. Ellis's ' Lepidopterous Fauna of 

 Lancashire and Cheshire.' 



He was a link between the sturdy northern entomologists 

 of the past generation and those of our day, as he had known 

 Gregson, Cooke, Higgins, Chappell, etc., and could tell much 

 that was interesting about them. On settling in Doncaster 

 he quickly found his way into the literary, scientific, and 

 philanthropic life of the town, and was soon utilising one of 

 his numerous gifts in the cause of charity. In the severe 

 winter of 1890-1, the frozen state of the waterways prevented 

 the bargemen from following their employment, and, in 



1921 April 1 



