Herbert James Carter (23 April 1858 – 16 April 1940) was an English-born

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n schoolmaster and entomologist. __NOTOC__

Early life

Carter was born at Marlborough, Wiltshire, England, the son of James Carter, farmer, and his wife Mary Ann, ''née'' Freeman. He was educated at Aldenham school,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, and at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1881. He was also a keen

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er.

Career

Migrating to Australia (arriving on the ''Potosi '' on 19 February 1882) Carter was made assistant mathematics master at

Sydney Grammar School (Praise be to God) , established = , type = Independent, day school , gender = Boys , religious_affiliation = None , slogan = , headmaster = R. B. Malpass , founder = Laurence Hynes Halloran , chairman = ...

, later becoming senior mathematics master. In 1902 he became principal of Ascham girls' school until 1914. During World War I, Carter became a founding member of the executive committee of the Australian branch of the British Red Cross Society. Carter became interested in the study of the

Coleoptera Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

(beetles and weevils), he joined the Linnean Society of New South Wales and was a member of its council from 1920 to 1939, and its president in 1925–1926. He was joint editor of ''

The Australian Encyclopaedia The ''Australian Encyclopaedia'' is an encyclopedia focused on Australia. In addition to biographies of notable Australians the coverage includes the geology, flora, fauna as well as the history of the continent. It was first published by Angus ...

'' which was published in 1925–1926. He was able to obtain the help of the leading scientists of Australia, and their articles formed a large and valuable part of this publication. In his own work Carter gave much attention to matters of synonymy, and published a number of check-lists of the families. He died suddenly at his home at Wahroonga,

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, on 16 April 1940.

Legacy

Around fifty of his papers are listed in Musgrave's ''Bibliography of Australian Entomology 1775-1930'', and Carter continued working almost up to the day of his death. He married Antoinette Charlotte Moore in 1882, who pre-deceased him, and was survived by two sons and two daughters. Carter was much esteemed by his scientific colleagues. Many of them are mentioned in his ''Gulliver in the Bush'' (1933), a record of his collecting trips in Australia. He was honorary entomologist to the Australian Museum, Sydney, for some years. He disposed of one collection of Coleoptera to the National Museum, Melbourne, and a later collection was given to the

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at Canberra. One of Carter's sons Lieut.-Colonel Herbert Gordon Carter, D.S.O., (1885–1963), fought in World War I.

References

* *G. T. Franki,
Carter, Herbert James (1858 - 1940)
, ''

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

'', Volume 7, MUP, 1979, pp 584–585. {{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Herbert James 1858 births 1940 deaths People from Marlborough, Wiltshire Australian entomologists Australian people of English descent Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge