Robert Shelford
| Robert Shelford | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Born | 1872 | ||||||||
| Died | 1912 | ||||||||
| Residence |
Sarawak Museum, Kuching; Hill House, Guildford [1900] Sarawak via Singapore [1901 from S.H. Shelford] Sarawak via Singapore [1902][from R.H. Shelford] University Museum (Hope Dept.), Oxford; 3 Wellington Square, Oxford [1905, 1906, 1907][from R.H. Shelford] | ||||||||
| Occupation |
museum work entomologist naturalist | ||||||||
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Contents
Notes
Office Notes
House Notes
nominated 1901.05.14
[R.W.C. Shelford was the brother of Mrs Laura Emily Bland q.v.]
I have combined three people here. I had listed S.H. Shelford, of Sarawak via Singapore in 1901 list; R.H. Shelford of Sarawak via Singapore [1902]; University Museum (Hope Dept.), Oxford; 3 Wellington Square, Oxford [1905] in List 1902, 1903, 1905. I had written with these two: confused - there seem to be both an S.H. and an R.H. Shelford at the same time, but they are not both on the list together. They may be the same person, but [see publication] there also appears to be an R.S. Shelford, not to mention Robert Walter Campbell Shelford, also with a Sarawak address
It was when I found R.H. Shelford had the Hope Dept. address, I thought he must be this Robert - see notes from elsewhere below
Notes From Elsewhere
Robert Walter Campbell Shelford (3 August 1872 – 22 June 1912), was a British entomologist and museum administrator and naturalist, with a special interest in entomology and insect mimicry; he specialised in cockroaches and also did some significant work on stick insects.
Robert Walter Campbell Shelford was born 3 August 1872 in Singapore, the son of a prominent British merchant. As a child, after an accident at the age of three, he developed a tubercular hip joint that incapacitated him for several years as a child. He became more mobile after an operation but was never able to participate in active sports as a child, although as an adult he enjoyed playing golf. The tuberculosis recurred in later life, and was the eventual cause of his death at an early age.
Shelford studied at King's College, London, and then at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.[1] After graduating from Cambridge in 1895 he went to Yorkshire College in Leeds as a demonstrator in Biology. In 1897 he went to Sarawak as the Curator of the Sarawak Museum in Kuching, a post he held for seven years. While he was at the Sarawak Museum quite a lot of specimens were sent to his old university at Cambridge.
In 1905 he left Sarawak Museum and returned to England. He went to Oxford and became an Assistant Curator of the Hope Department of Zoology at the University Museum. On his way back to England he collected many specimens which he gave to the Hope Collection in Oxford, in addition to "the vast collection of Bornean insects which he had presented [to the Hope Collection] during 1899-1901 while Curator of the Sarawak Museum" (Smith, 1986: 58).[2]
Most of his work at Oxford was on cockroaches, but he also worked on the other insects he had brought back from Borneo, and assisted in the library. It was at Oxford that he did most of his published research on phasmids.
Shelford married Audrey Gurney from Bath on 25 June 1908. In April 1909 he slipped and the tubercular disease flared up and severely limited his work throughout the final three years of his life. Robert Shelford died in Margate at the age of 39 on 22 June 1912.
Born Singapore; died Margate. Curator of Sarawak Museum (1897-1904) and then worked in Hope Department, University Museum, Oxford. Expert on cockroaches.
Publications
External Publications
A Naturalist in Borneo
Notes from the Sarawak Museum
Published in 1900 in Journal of The Straits Branch of The Royal Asiatic Society, volume 33, on pages 256-261
Authors: R H Shelford, R S Shelford [are they the same as him?? - see notes!]
House Publications
Related Material Details
RAI Material
Other Material
The vast majority of phasmid specimens in the Sarawak Museum in Kuching were collected during Shelford's time as curator, this is probably also the case for the majority of insect groups in the collection. Many of the Bornean| specimens in both Oxford University and Cambridge University collections are also specimens collected during Shelford's time in Sarawak
PRM field collector
