187 
Sn Memoriam. 
JOHN EMMERSON ROBSON. 
NorTHERN LepipopTerists have sustained a great loss in the 
death of John E. Robson of Hartlepool, which event took place 
on February 28th last, after an illness of some weeks’ duration. 
Mr. Robson was seventy-four years of age. For a very long 
period he was known in the north of England as an ardent and 
successful lepidopterist, and since his connection with the 
‘Young Naturalist’ (afterwards the ‘ British Naturalist ’), 
equally so throughout the country. Mr. Robson edited the 
journal just alluded to for the fourteen years from 1879 to 1893, 
the first several years in conjunction with Mr. S. L. Mosley. 
The journal was very popular and did much good, and will long 
be remembered on account of the lively but thoroughly good- 
natured discussions between prominent lepidopterists of the time 
on various entomological problems. Mr. Robson also issued 
‘A List of British Lepidoptera, and their named Varieties,’ 
but his greatest literary work was probably ‘The Lepidoptera 
of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle-on-Tyne,’ the 
concluding part of which he was engaged upon at the time of his 
death. He had been busy on this work for some years, and 
three parts had already been issued, bringing it to the end of 
the Tortrices, and leaving only the Tinez and Pterophori to be 
dealt with. We are glad to know that this part will not suffer 
through the author’s death, as Mr. E. R. Bankes has kindly 
undertaken to see it through the press, and it would have been 
impossible to have placed it in better or more suitable hands. 
Mr. Robson was an enthusiastic and genial companion as. we 
know from experience, and a charming correspondent. He 
had been a Fellow of the Entomological Society of London 
since 18go. 
Besides his business and entomological pursuits, Mr. Robson 
took great interest in public work, especially educational, and 
was formerly on the old School Board, and more recently on the 
Education Committee at Hartlepool. He was, too, until his 
death, a member of the Borough Council, of which body his 
father was Mayor so long ago as 1855. The funeral took place 
at Hartlepool Cemetery on March 4th, and was of a public 
character, being attended by the Mayor and Corporation and 
very many of the leading inhabitants of the town, whilst the 
streets en route to the cemetery were lined with people assembled 
to show their respect.—G, T. P. 
1907 May 1. 
