Stanley Norman Aflalo Jacobs
Stanley Norman Aflalo Jacobs | |
|---|---|
| Born | 11 November 1896 Leytonstone, U.K. |
| Died | 14 September 1989 (aged 92) Bromley, U.K. |
| Occupation | |
| Spouse | Gladys Louise Fison |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | British Museum (Natural History) |
Stanley Norman Aflalo Jacobs (1896-1989) was a British entomologist and illustrator. Jacobs worked for many years at the British Museum (Natural History) and was an expert on Pyralid moths.
Biography[edit]
Jacobs was born in Leytonstone[1] on 11 November 1896.[2] His parents were Harold Aflalo Jacobs, a shipbroker, and Amy Elizabeth Green, who had married in 1891.[3]
Jacobs was interested in entomology from childhood, inspired by a personal museum which had belonged to his maternal grandfather Mark Green: Green had worked for P&O shipping and had been gifted insect specimens from the travels of his colleagues.[4]
Jacobs was educated at St Dunstan's College, Catford, before becoming an apprentice at Vickers engineering company.[5]
Jacobs served on the Western Front in the First World War with the 16th Middlesex Regiment and then the Royal Engineers before mustard gas exposure led to his being sent home as an invalid in 1918.[6][4] Jacobs' only sibling, older brother Alan Edward Aflalo Jacobs (1895-1916), died during the conflict: Alan was awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry in May 1916[7] but went on to be reported missing in action near Armentières on 7 August 1916.[8]
After the War Jacobs felt 'most unsettled' and found it difficult to get comfortable in any line of work: he spent some time studying agriculture and crop pests and assisted with a harvest in Canada,[4][5] before he returned to the U.K. and followed his father into a career in shipbroking.[6]
Jacobs was elected a member of the South London Entomological Society on 28 June 1923,[9] and through the Society he would meet and befriend other entomologists including Norman Denbigh Riley, William Fassnidge and Edward Cockayne.[6] Jacobs worked as editor of the journal The Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation from 1955 to 1972.[4] Due to working in London, Jacobs sought unusual outlets for his insect collecting such as visiting dried fruit merchants in the Eastcheap district to look for Pyralid moths in warehoused goods.[4]
On 18 June 1927 Jacobs married Gladys Louise Fison (1900-1977) at St Saviour's Church in Forest Hill.[10]
During the Second World War Jacobs worked as a Special Constable for the Metropolitan Police.[2] Also during WWII, Jacobs was occupied with trapping the larvae of the moth Ephestia elutella (a.k.a. the cacao moth or warehouse moth) which was a pest of stored grain.[11]
In 1954 Jacobs provided colour illustrations for Brian Patrick Beirne's book British Pyralid and Plume Moths.[12]
From the mid-1930s Jacobs began working part time at the British Museum (Natural History) as a curator of Lepidoptera. He continued to volunteer at the Museum after his retirement from shipbroking in 1962.[6] In the 1970s Jacobs decided to transfer his personal insect collections to the Museum.[4] Papers relating to Jacobs' work dating from 1936 to 1979 were also accessioned by the Natural History Museum in 2004.[13]
Jacobs was an active entomologist into his mid eighties.[5] He died at Bromley[14] on 14 September 1989.[5]
References[edit]
- ^ "1911 England Census for Stanley Norman Aflalo Jacobs". ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
- ^ a b "1939 England and Wales Register for Stanley N A Jacobs". ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
- ^ "London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1938 for Harold Aflalo Jacobs". ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f Jacobs, S.N.A.; Sokoloff, Paul (25 March 1994). "The Life Cycle of a Bughunter (the late S.N.A. Jacobs) introduced by Paul Sokoloff". The Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation. 106: 57–69 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
- ^ a b c d Sokoloff, Paul (1990). "Obituary: Stanley Norman Aflalo Jacobs 1896-1989". British Journal of Entomology and Natural History. 3: 29–31 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
- ^ a b c d Sokoloff, P (1990). "Obituary: Stanley Norman Aflalo Jacobs". The Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation. 102: 5–6 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
- ^ "Gallant Soldiers. Officers and Men Rewarded: The Military Cross [Temp. Sec. Lt. Alan Edward Aflalo Jacobs 8th E. Surr. R.]". Evening Mail. 17 May 1916. p. 2 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Second Lieutenant Alan Edward Aflalo Jacobs". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
- ^ "Societies. The South London Entomological Society". The Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation. 35 (10): 160. 15 October 1923 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
- ^ "Marriages: Jacobs - Fison". Forest Hill and Sydenham Examiner. 24 June 1927. p. 2 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ Bateman, James A (1971). Animal Traps and Trapping (2003 ed.). Coch-y-Bonddu Books. p. 93.
- ^ Beirne, Bryan P (1954). British Pyralid and Plume Moths (First revised ed.). London: Frederick Warne & Co Ltd.
- ^ "The National Archives: The Natural History Museum: 2004 Accessions". nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
- ^ source: GRO index for deaths in England, March 1/4 1989, volume 11 page 822: Jacobs Stanley Norman A, recording district Bromley. Via freebmd,org