The Zoologist/4th series, vol 1 (1897)/Issue 676/Obituary: Rev. Andrew Matthews
We regret to announce the death of this well-known British naturalist, who died, at the age of eighty-two, on September 14th last, at Gumley, of which he had been rector for forty-four years. He was born on June 18th, 1815, the day of Waterloo, and by a coincidence died on an anniversary of the death of the Duke of Wellington. Mr. Matthews was more widely known as an entomologist than an ornithologist, and may be said to have inherited his zoological tastes, as his father was also a naturalist and a contemporary of Dale, Stevens, Curtis, and other wellknown men of that period. In 1849, in conjunction with his brother Henry Matthews, he published 'The History of the Birds of Oxfordshire and its Neighbourhood.' We learn from his son (Dr. J.C.S. Matthews) that he leaves a collection of British Birds containing about 450 specimens, chiefly obtained by himself and his father in Oxfordshire and the New Forest. This collection also comprises the first Ibis recorded in this country, shot in Norfolk 200 years ago and noted by Pennant, and two specimens of the Avocet, likewise mentioned by that old author.
As an entomologist he will be best remembered as an authority on the minute beetles, Trichopterygidæ, of which he described many species, and, in 1872, published his well-known 'Trichopterygia illustrata,' of which in his eightieth year he completed a second volume which is now in the publisher's hands. He was also the contributor on this group to Godman and Salvin's 'Biologia Centrali-Americana,' and joint author with the Rev. W.W. Fowler of a Catalogue of British Coleoptera in 1883. When we add that Mr. Matthews was also a successful floriculturist, especially with regard to Pelargoniums and Picotees, we take leave of a long, happy, and useful life passed in the culture and leisure of a rural rectory.
Mr. Matthews was an old contributor to these pages; we notice his name as far back as 1847.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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