Robert Henry Fernando Rippon (c. 1836 – 16 January 1917) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

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 ...

and

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

. He was a musician for a while but took a keen amateur interest in entomology and published a major multi-volume work on the birdwing butterflies, the ''Icones Ornithopterum'' (1898-1906)''.'' He also wrote ''Lilliebright; or, Wisdom and Folly: A Fairy Tale, and Other Tales'' (1856), and a semi-autobiographical novel, ''Victor; Or, Lessons of Life. a Tale Founded on Fact (1864).

Life and work

Rippon was born in Bocking, Essex, the first son of John and Martha. His father John is recorded in the 1841 census as a professor of music at Braintree, Essex. Robert Rippon's interests included poetry and music, with several piano compositions to his credit. In 1861 Robert's lived in Reading, Berkshire and his profession was recorded as professor of music. Around 1876 he moved to London and took to zoological illustration for a living. He produced several plates for

Frederick DuCane Godman Frederick DuCane Godman DCL FRS FLS FGS FRGS FES FZS MRI FRHS (15 January 1834 – 19 February 1919) was an English lepidopterist, entomologist and ornithologist. He was one of the twenty founding members of the British Ornithologists' Un ...

and

Osbert Salvin Osbert Salvin FRS (25 February 1835 – 1 June 1898) was an English naturalist, ornithologist, and herpetologist best known for co-authoring ''Biologia Centrali-Americana'' (1879–1915) with Frederick DuCane Godman. This was a 52 volume encyc ...

's ''

Biologia Centrali-Americana The ''Biologia Centrali-Americana'' is an encyclopedia of the natural history of Mexico and Central America, privately issued in 215 parts from 1879 to 1915 by the editors Frederick DuCane Godman and Osbert Salvin, of the British Museum (Natural ...

''. He was a close friend of

John Obadiah Westwood John Obadiah Westwood (22 December 1805 – 2 January 1893) was an English entomologist and archaeologist also noted for his artistic talents. He published several illustrated works on insects and antiquities. He was among the first entomologist ...

, to whom he dedicated the first volume of his magnum opus, the illustrated monograph ''Icones Ornithopterorum'' (1898 to 1906), about the birdwing butterflies. It was initially planned for 20 parts but later made up of 25 parts which were to be bound into two volumes. The second volume was dedicated to Lord Walter Rothschild. This work included 111 plates, all of which were illustrated and hand coloured by himself. He was also a friend of the entomologist

George Robert Crotch George Robert Crotch (1842 – 16 June 1874) was a British entomologist and an authority on Coleoptera (beetles), particularly the ladybird beetles. He was the grandson of the English composer and organist William Crotch. Biography Born in Som ...

, and the naturalist

Philip Henry Gosse Philip Henry Gosse FRS (; 6 April 1810 – 23 August 1888), known to his friends as Henry, was an English naturalist and populariser of natural science, an early improver of the seawater aquarium, and a painstaking innovator in the study of ma ...

. He also designed pottery for the

Watcombe Pottery The Aller Vale Pottery was formed in 1865 on the northern edge of the village of Kingskerswell in South Devon, England on the likely site of a medieval pottery. It became well known for the creation of art pottery at the end of the 19th century a ...

Rippon married Sarah Anne Pope in 1858 at Wycombe and they had a son, Edrick Victor Rippon (born 1864), who took an interest in molluscs and insects, living later in Toronto, where he became the first president of the Toronto Entomological Society. They also had a daughter named Faithful Faerie (also known as Faithful Isabel, or “Fran”, born 1868). Sarah died in 1870 and he later married Eliza Balfour Moore (d. 1926) with whom he had a son named Felix in 1878. Rippon is noted as a religious person and a teetotaler. He objected to corporal and capital punishment. Towards the end of his life he lived at Upper Norwood and wished that his collection could be acquired in full rather than get broken up. After his death, his private collection was offered for £1000 by his widow to the British Museum. It was thought to be overpriced and Emily Mary Bowdler Sharpe, daughter of

Richard Bowdler Sharpe Richard Bowdler Sharpe (22 November 1847 – 25 December 1909) was an English zoologist and ornithologist who worked as curator of the bird collection at the British Museum of natural history. In the course of his career he published several mono ...

, was assigned to evaluate the value of the collections. She evaluated it at about £500-600, noting that the specimens were good, well labelled and worthy of acquisition.

William Evans Hoyle Dr William Evans Hoyle FRSE (28 January 1855 – 7 February 1926) was a noted British zoologist. A specialist in deep sea creatures he worked on classification and illustrations from the Challenger Expedition from 1882 to 1888. Life Hoyle ...

of wrote to

Lord Rhondda David Alfred Thomas, 1st Viscount Rhondda, Privy Council of the United Kingdom, PC (26 March 1856 – 3 July 1918), was a Welsh industrialist and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician. He was UK Member of Parliament (MP) for Merthyr Tydfil (UK ...

suggesting that the value of the collection was worth more than the £1000 sought by Mrs Rippon. The collection also included bird skins whose fate is unknown, but the collection of insects was bought by

and donated to the

National Museum of Wales National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

; it included more than 105,000 specimens. His son Victor also collected beetles and many of these are in the

Royal Ontario Museum The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year ...

. The Australian ladybird species ''Coelophora ripponi'' was named in his honour by Crotch in his 1874 ''A Revision of the Coleopterous Family Coccinellidae'', a posthumously-published work for which Rippon checked the proofs and wrote the preface. In 1979, the species was determined to be a synonym of '' Coelophora inaequalis''.

References

External links

* ''Icones Ornithopterorum''
Volume 1Volume 2
*
Lilliebright; or, Wisdom and Folly: A Fairy Tale, and Other Tales
' *
Victor; or, Lessons of Life. A tale founded on fact
' 1836 births 1917 deaths English zoologists English illustrators English lepidopterists People associated with Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales English composers English novelists 19th-century illustrators 20th-century illustrators 19th-century novelists {{UK-entomologist-stub