The Australian Journal of Science/8/6/Obituary: F. H. Taylor, FRES, FZS

by Anon

Obituary

F. H. Taylor, F.R.E.S., F.Z.S.

Frank Henry Taylor, entomologist at the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, University of Sydney, died in his sixtieth year at his home in Epping, N.S.W., on 20 December, 1945.

He was educated at the Sydney Grammar School. He entered the N.S.W. Public Service in 1906 as a scientific cadet, and in 1911 he was appointed as the first entomologist of the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine at Townsville. In 1918 he resigned to take up the appointment of entomologist to the Special Blow-fly Committee, Queensland, of the Commonwealth Advisory Council of Science and Industry. He was reappointed to the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine in 1925 and was lecturer and examiner for the first Australian Diploma in Tropical Medicine in 1926. While on the staff of the Institute he published a number of papers on the families Culicidae and Taballidae and carried out mosquito surveys of Queensland coastal towns and of irrigation areas in the Murray River district.

When the Institute was transferred to Sydney in 1930, Mr. Taylor became lecturer in entomology at what was then the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Sydney University. He visited New Guinea and the Northern Territory several times to carry out entomological investigations and collect material for the School.

He was a member of the Linnean Society of N.S.W. and contributed many papers on Diptera to its proceedings; he was elected to the Council of the Society in 1937 and was its president in 1943. He was a fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London and of the Zoological Society of London, and a member of the British Ecological Society.

During the war Mr. Taylor prepared, in conjunction with Dr. G. F. Lumley and Dr. R. E. Murray, three valuable Service publications: 'Dengue' (in conjunction with Dr. Lumley); 'Mosquito Intermediary Hosts of Disease in Australia and New Guinea'; and 'The Intermediary Hosts of Malaria in the Netherlands East Indies' (in conjunction with Dr. Murray).

In 1942 Taylor took part in the work of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in Cairns, in collaboration with the Army, which obtained valuable information on the transmission of malaria in the Australasian region. At the time of his death he had completed compilation of a comprehensive brochure with Dr. R. E. Murray on spiders, mites and ticks, which is now in the press.

In all he published some forty-four works, The School's valuable collection of entomological material is largely due to his efforts.

Mr. Taylor was in a state of ill health for many months prior to his death and carried on his work under difficulties.

He attempted to go overseas in the 1914-18 war but was rejected on medical grounds. It was his cherished desire to enter the armed services in the recent war as an entomological specialist; unfortunately his health prevented this. However, his services as lecturer and consultant were freely made use of not only by the armed services of his own country but by those of the U.S.A. and other allies.

Mr. Taylor is survived by a widow and one daughter.