Parson-naturalists who created a buzz
One of the major intellectual challenges of the 19th century was to reconcile new scientific discoveries and inferences with the religion so deeply embedded in the population at large and especially in the countryside. No one represented the dilemma more than a rather special breed, rurally based yet highly educated, charged with upholding the Christian faith yet eager to explore the secrets of the physical world: the rural parson-scientist. One such was William Kirby, for 68 years the vicar of the Suffolk parishes of Barham and Coddenham, a sedulously observant enthusiast who distinguished himself by identifying a tiny but particularly unpleasant parasite that remains today the subject of close ongoing study. In due course he was declared ‘the father of entomology’.
Kirby’s work explains why, with so many comely and colourful insects available to them, the 10 worthy gentlemen who met at the British Museum to found the Entomological Society of London on 3 May 1833, and who confirmed its ‘Kirby’ of the order Strepsiptera, Greek for ‘twisted wing’. The society appointed him honorary president for life. Within a year it had 10 full members and 117 honorary members, and women were allowed membership with the same right as men, a gesture that raised a few male eyebrows. It became the Royal Entomological Society in 1885.
