Owain Westmacott Richards FRS (31 December 1901 – 10 November 1984) was a British entomologist and ecologist who worked as Professor of Zoology and Applied Entomology,

Imperial College, London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

, based at

Silwood Park Silwood Park is the rural campus of Imperial College London, England. It is situated near the village of Sunninghill, near Ascot in Berkshire. Since 1986, there have been major developments on the site with four new college buildings. Adjacent ...

, and an editor of the ''Journal of Animal Ecology''. Richards was born in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

, the second son of the town medical officer Harold Meredith and Mary Cecilia née Todd. His mother was interested in botany and natural history. He studied at St Cross School, Surrey and then as a boarder to

Hereford Cathedral School Hereford Cathedral School is an independent, co-educational day and boarding school for pupils of ages 3 to 18 years, from Nursery to Sixth Form. Its headmaster is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The school's premi ...

and

Brasenose College, Oxford Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the mi ...

studying mathematics before switching to zoology. He was a Senior Hulme Scholar and a Christopher Welch Scholar. He began to take an interest in British insects, collecting along with H. A. Hamm. His expertise in entomology was appreciated by teachers like

Charles Elton Charles Elton may refer to: *Charles Elton (Born, 1993) Professional Rugby Player for Otago Rugby * Charles Isaac Elton (1839–1900), English lawyer, politician, writer and antiquarian * Charles Sutherland Elton (1900–1991), English biologist ...

. He worked as a research assistant at the Imperial College in the entomology department in 1927. He became a reader in 1937. It was here that he met Maud Norris, his future wife. He became head of the department of zoology at Imperial College in 1953 and also served as a director of the College Field Station in Silwood Park. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1959. He travelled on collection trips to Guyana with his younger brother Paul W. Richards. He retired in 1967. He also travelled to Brazil and Africa, making collections and studying collections in the US and Australia. In 1978 he published ''The Social Wasps of the Americas''. He also contributed to the field of quantitative life budgets and population estimation. Wakehurst Place, Owain Richards bench

Among his key activities were revisions made along with

Richard Gareth Davies Richard Gareth Davies (born 20 June 1920) is a British entomologist and one-time professor of entomology at Imperial College, at that time a constituent college of the federal University of London. Publications In 1925, Augustus Daniel Imms ...

to the ''Textbook of Entomology'' by

Augustus Daniel Imms Augustus Daniel Imms FRS (24 August 1880, in Moseley, Worcestershire – 3 April 1949 in Tipton St. John near Sidmouth, Devon) was an English educator, research administrator and entomologist. An influential textbook of entomology that he first ...

. He married the entomologist Maud J. Norris in 1931. Richard's mother was devoutly Anglican while his father was Welsh Baptist but as a child he did not attend church and in later life was an agnostic. His collection of insects which included 69000 Hymenoptera and 14000 diptera were donated to the museum.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Richards, Owain Westmacott 1901 births 1984 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society British entomologists 20th-century British zoologists People from Croydon