In nkmoriiim. 



William Ambridqe Luff, 



BORN 4th FEBRUARY, 1851 ; DIED 19th MAY, 1910. 



THE Guernsey Society of Natural Science has this year 

 sustained a very grievous loss by the untimely death of 

 my lamented friend, Mr. William Ambridge Luff, who 

 for over a quarter of a century had been one of its staunchest 

 friends and supporters. On a memorable day in October 1882 

 it was resolved to form a Society having for its object the 

 systematic study of the Natural History and Archaeology of 

 Guernsey and the neighbouring islands. Mr. Luff was one 

 of the leading spirits in this movement, and since that date 

 his interest never flagged for a single moment in the work 

 being done by the Society he loved so well. It was always 

 with a feeling of pride that he would point to the volumes on 

 his bookshelves comprising the Transactions of the Society 

 for twenty-two years ; and twenty-two years of uninterrupted 

 activity is no ordinary measure of life in a small insular 

 Society like ours. 



Very early in life young Luff began to manifest a keen 

 interest in butterflies and beetles ; and as time went on the 

 study and collecting of insects became his sole hobby and 

 delight. Every hour that could be snatched from a business 

 that kept him closely occupied, was devoted to the study of 

 Entomology ; but the insect-fauna of the Channel Islands 

 was always to him of paramount interest. Thousands of 

 specimens from other parts of the world had a place in his 

 cabinets, and were necessary for study and comparison ; but a 

 single specimen captured in the Channel Islands was in his 

 sight worth ten taken elsewhere. During more than forty 

 years' collecting in the different islands of the Channel Archi- 



