Frederick Vincent Theobald
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Through Mosquito, Sanitation and Insect
Life and career
Frederick Vincent Theobald was born on 15 May 1868 in Tooting (then in Surrey), the son of solicitor John P. Theobald and Anne Theobald (née Matthews). From childhood he showed a great interest in nature, particularly insects. Aged eight, "with childish enthusiasm, he set himself the task of writing the 'Fauna of Sussex'" and produced a set of pages his parents deemed worthy of binding.
After graduating from St John's College, Cambridge, he was a University Extension Lecturer in economic zoology for three years before joining the South-Eastern Agricultural College at Wye, Kent, in 1894, where he was lecturer in economic entomology and zoology, and vice-principal "for several years".
Between 1899 and 1910, Theobald worked with the British Museum on mosquito taxonomy and led the economic zoology section of the British Museum from 1900 to 1904. He was also Professor of Agricultural Zoology at London University. Theobald lectured at the College at Wye until 1920 when he became advisory entomologist to the Board of Agriculture for the South-Eastern district of England.
Theobald died on 6 March 1930 in Wye, Kent, and was buried in Wye Churchyard.
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Natural history
After the discovery at the end of the 19th century that malaria was transmitted by mosquitoes, the British Museum promoted mosquito taxonomy as a necessary step in the control of mosquitoes. With this support, Theobald wrote A Monograph of the Culicidae, or Mosquitoes (in five volumes, 1901–1910) for the Colonial Office and the Royal Society. He also wrote sixty scientific papers on mosquitoes and was the first to describe numerous species of insects. In addition, his research contributed to the fields of tropical medicine and sanitation.
Theobold bequeathed his Aphididae collection and types to the British Museum. The journal Nature notes that he had formed "probably the finest collection in existence of insects of economic importance, showing the various stages and damage done by these pests".
Societies and honours
Theobald's obituary in The Times notes that "he was the member of many learned societies, foreign as well as English". He was a fellow of the Royal Entomological Society from 1886 to 1901, and again from 1910, council member and fellow of the Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from 1907, and an "early president" of the Society of Economic Biologists. He was awarded honorary membership of:
- Société Nationale d'Acclimatation de France, from which he received the Grande Médaille Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire,
- Société pour l'Étude Agriculturale Zoologique de Bordeaux,
- Société de Médecine Tropicale de Paris,
- Société de Pathologie Exotique, Paris,
- Association of Economic Entomologists of the United States, and
- Royal Horticultural Society, from which he received the Victoria Medal of Honour in 1926.
Theobald was made an Officer of the Imperial Ottoman Order of Osmanieh by the Egyptian Government in 1907 and was awarded the Mary Kingsley Medal by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in 1913.