Edgar Harold Strickland (29 May 1889 in

Erith Erith () is an area in south-east London, England, east of Charing Cross. Before the creation of Greater London in 1965, it was in the historical county of Kent. Since 1965 it has formed part of the London Borough of Bexley. It lies nort ...

– 31 May 1962 in Victoria, British Columbia) was an English army colonel and

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

who specialized in flies and was the founding entomologist at the University of Alberta.

Biography

Strickland was born at

, Kent. He studied at Wye College with Frederick Vincent Theobald then at Harvard University with a Carnegie

studentship A studentship is a type of academic scholarship. United States In the US a ''studentship'' is similar to a scholarship but involves summer work on a research project. The amount paid to the recipient is normally tax-free, but the recipient is ...

. He studied under W. M. Wheeler, working on termites and parasites of ''

Simulium ''Simulium'' is a genus of black flies, which may transmit diseases such as onchocerciasis (river blindness). It is a large genus with several hundred species, and 41 subgenera. The flies are pool feeders. Their saliva, which contains antico ...

''. From 1913 to 1921, he was entomology officer for the province of Alberta based in

Lethbridge Lethbridge ( ) is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada. With a population of 101,482 in its 2019 Alberta municipal censuses, 2019 municipal census, Lethbridge became the fourth Alberta city to surpass 100,000 people. The nearby Canadian ...

. He served as a lieutenant in the First World War with the 1st Battalion of the Canadian Machine Gun Corps and was wounded in France in 1918. In 1922, he founded the University of Alberta's entomology department and served as a one-man department until 1946. During the Second World War, he served as a commanding officer of the Army Basic Training Unit at Wetaskiwin and attained the rank of colonel. In 1946, he was joined by

Brian Hocking Brian Hocking (22 September 1914 – 23 May 1974) was a Canadian entomologist known for his work in medical entomology on blood-sucking flies, particularly black-flies and mosquitoes. He was also a specialist in insect host detection and flight. He ...

at the entomology department and he retired in 1954. Strickland wrote 60 entomological papers on ecology, life cycles, taxonomy, and pest control. He is best-known for his prescient 1945 paper, "Could the widespread use of DDT be a disaster?" He was married to Alice Fairfield from 1924 and they had two daughters.

References

External links

*Ball, George E. (6 March 1996)
"Reminiscences of 'Strick'"
on the occasion of the first annual Strickland Lecture. Archived 26 April 2012.

1889 births 1962 deaths English entomologists Canadian entomologists Harvard University alumni 20th-century British zoologists 20th-century Canadian zoologists DDT Military personnel from Kent Canadian Machine Gun Corps officers Canadian military personnel of World War I Canadian Expeditionary Force officers Canadian Army personnel of World War II Alumni of Wye College {{UK-entomologist-stub