Cyril Beeson | |
|---|---|
 Beeson in 1923 | |
| Born | (1889-02-10)10 February 1889 Headington,Oxfordshire, England |
| Died | 3 November 1975(1975-11-03) (aged 86) |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | City of Oxford High School for Boys |
| Alma mater | St John's College, Oxford |
| Occupation(s) | entomologist; antiquarianhorologist |
Cyril Frederick Cherrington BeesonCIE,D.Sc. (1889–1975) was an Englishentomologist andforest conservator who worked in India. Beeson was an expert on forest entomology who wrote numerous papers on insects, and whose book on Indian forest insects remains a standard work on the subject. After his retirement and return to England he became anantiquarianhorologist.
Beeson was born in Oxford on 10 February 1889 to Walter Thomas Beeson and Rose Eliza Beeson,née Clacey.[1] Walter Beeson was Surveyor toSt John's College, Oxford.[1]
In 1922, Beeson married Marion Cossentine, daughter of Samuel Fitze. They had a daughter, Barbara Rose, who was born about 1925.[1] Marion died in 1946 after a long period of ill-health.[2] In 1971, aged 82, Beeson married his second wife, Mrs Margaret Athalie Baldwin Carbury, formerly of Kenya, daughter of Cecil William Allen.[3][4][5]
Beeson died on 3 November 1975.[3]
Beeson attendedCity of Oxford High School for Boys, where his best friend wasT. E. Lawrence (known to Beeson as "Ned", later coming to be known asLawrence of Arabia).[1] Lawrence called him by his nickname of "Scroggs".[6]
At the age of 15 Beeson and Lawrence bicycled aroundBerkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, visited almost every village's parish church, studied theirmonuments andantiquities and maderubbings of theirmonumental brasses.[3] The two schoolboys monitored building sites in Oxford and presented their finds to theAshmolean Museum.[3] The Ashmolean'sAnnual Report for 1906 said that the pair"by incessant watchfulness secured everything of antiquarian value which has been found".[3] In the summers of 1906 and 1907 Beeson and Lawrence toured France by bicycle, collecting photographs, drawings and measurements ofmedieval castles.[3] Beeson made many of the drawings that Lawrence used in his thesisThe influence of the Crusades on European Military Architecture – to the end of the 12th century, which was published in 1936 asCrusader Castles.[3]
Beeson entered theUniversity of Oxford in 1907 to read geology.[1] He was a non-collegiate student until 1908, when he won anexhibition that enabled him to enter St John's College.[1] He graduated in 1910 but then changed disciplines toforestry, in which he obtained a diploma.[1] He received hisMA in 1917 and an Oxford D.Sc. in 1923.[1]
Beeson was a captain in theRoyal Army Medical Corps in theFirst World War.[1]
From 1911 until 1941 Beeson worked for theImperial Forest Service (IFS) as a research officer, forest conservator and forest entomologist.[1] The IFS seconded him to study tropical and forest entomology in London and Germany, after which he first served in thePunjab.[1] In 1913 he was appointed Forest Zoologist of India.[1] Beeson was closely involved with the development of theForest Research Institute atDehradun.[2] In 1922 his post was renamed Forest Entomologist.[1] He served in the same position until his retirement in 1941, when he was made a Companion of theOrder of the Indian Empire.[2]
Beeson's first book,The Ecology and Control of the Forest Insects of India and the Neighbouring Countries was published in 1941.[2] It remained the standard work in its field,[2] being republished in 1961 and 1993.
Beeson returned to Oxford, where he became Director of the Imperial Forestry Bureau from 1945 to 1947.[2] While he was Director of the IFB, Beeson and his wife moved toAdderbury in North Oxfordshire.[2]
The scale insect genusBeesonia was named after Beeson who collected specimens described byEdward Ernest Green in 1926. It is placed in a familyBeesoniidae.[7]
When the couple moved to Adderbury, Beeson began to collect antique clocks, many of which originated from Oxfordshire.[2] Beeson turned his scholarly and scientific approach toantiquarianhorology, and in 1953 became a founder member of the Antiquarian Horological Society.[2] He contributed many articles to the AHS's quarterlyacademic journalAntiquarian Horology, and edited it for the year 1959–60.[2]
Beeson became a published authority on the prominent clockmakersJoseph Knibb (1640–1711)[8] andJohn Knibb (1650–1722).[9] Beeson's own collection included five clocks and three watches by John Knibb.[10] He also developed a special interest inturret clocks and made an influential study of the clock installed in 1669 atWadham College, Oxford, which he proposed was made by Joseph Knibb.[2]
Beeson joined the Banbury Historical Society soon after its foundation in 1958.[2] He was Chairman of the BHS 1959–60 and founding editor of its journalCake and Cockhorse 1959–62.[2] In 1962 the AHS and BHS jointly published the first edition of Beeson'smonograph,Clockmaking in Oxfordshire 1400–1850.[2]
In 1924 theMuseum of the History of Science, Oxford started a small collection of historic clocks and watches.[11] In 1966 Beeson greatly expanded this by presenting the Museum with his own historic collection,[2] which included 42longcase clocks, 24 other clocks and 13 watches.[10] In 1967 the Museum published a second, enlarged[12] edition of his bookClockmaking in Oxfordshire 1400–1850.[2] In 1971 the Museum published a broader study by Beeson,English Church Clocks 1280–1850: History and Classification.[13] This led the AHS in 1973 to form its turret clock section, of which Beeson became chairman.[3] In 1972Lord Bullock,Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford opened the Museum of the History of Science's Beeson Room to house its horological collection.[11]
For his final book Beeson returned to one of the castles in France that had interested him and T.E. Lawrence as teenagers.Perpignan 1356: The Making of a Tower Clock and Bell for the King's Castle is a substantial account of the tower clock and bell made in 1356 for thePalace of the Kings of Majorca atPerpignan.[3]
Over a period of more than 30 years Beeson published more than 60 scientific articles on tropical forest insects.[2] He also edited the Indian forestry journal.[2] Listed below are only the books that Beeson wrote, including journal articles that were republished as books.
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