CICADINA-10 Gesamt Endv 2

ZOBODAT - www.zobodat.at Zoologisch-Botanische Datenbank/Zoological-Botanical Database Digitale Literatur/Digital Literature Zeitschrift/Journal: Cicadina = Beiträge zur Zikadenkunde Jahr/Year: 2009 Band/Volume: 10 Autor(en)/Author(s): Long Roger Artikel/Article: Obituary: Walter John Le Quesne (17.5.1922 - 25.5.2006). 27-31 ©Arbeitskreis Zikaden Mitteleuropas e.V. - download unter www.biologiezentrum.at Cicadina10:27-31(2009) 27 Obituary: Walter John Le Quesne (17.5.1922 – 25.5.2006) Roger Long1 WalterLeQuesne, who diedin Chesham, Buckinghamshire, on 25th May, 2006, was a man of manyachievements across a widerangeof subjects resting on thebroadbaseof his for midableintellect. His work, as a professional chemist, andhis entomological studies were scientific, but his everenquiring mind ranged over languages, literature, genealogy and other non-scientific fields, which revealed an astonishing variety and breadth of interest. For such an active person the last few years of his life were most poignant, with failing sight, leading to almost completeblindness, andonlyhis astonishing memoryto maintain hisphenomenalmental ability. Walterwas born into an artisan’s familyin St Helier, Jersey, on 17th May1922. Heat- tended thelocal Juniorschool from which in 1932 hewon a States of Jersey scholarship to Victoria College, theJerseypublicschool. His academicabilities werepresaged, perhaps, by his teaching himself for pleasure thedates of birth, ascension to thethroneanddeath of all themonarchs of England, before hewent to school at theageof six. At Victoria his aca- demicsuccesses includedTheKing’s GoldMedal forMathematics in 1939, his final year, andthe King Charles I Scholarship to Jesus College, Oxford, forwhich hetook a belated oneterm courseof universityentranceLatin. His tutorurgedhim to learn someGerman during thelong vacation in 1940, which unavoidablybecamethefiveyears of theGerman Occupation oftheChannelIslands,whenhegrudginglyacquiredtheoccupiers’language. 1 Ozarda, Les Hamonnets, St John, Jersey, ChannelIslands, JE3 4FP, [email protected] ©Arbeitskreis Zikaden Mitteleuropas e.V. - download unter www.biologiezentrum.at 28 R.Long Afterthewar, with his degreecompleted, hetook his PhD in organicchemistryand joinedtheRadiochemical Centre at Amersham, then a branch of theUK Atomic Energy Authority. His work thereextendedinto computing, then in its veryearlystages, forwhich hebegan writing programs in verybasicsystems using ‘machinelanguage’ or‘C’, well be foretheadventofoff-theshelfprograms,andwithwhichhecontinuedthroughout hislife. Walterwas a senior researcher, later appointedan Assistant Manager of theCentre with responsibilityinter alia forthesynthesising and radioactivelabelling of biologicallyimpor tant compounds. Heremainedin that post with graduallyincreasing responsibilities as, al- though his intellectual interests andabilities far exceededthoseof most of his colleagues in this largeorganisation, job satisfaction was what matteredforWalter; competing forper sonaladvancementhelefttoothers. Former colleagues tell of a temperamental volatilitywhen Walterwas exasperated by someobject orprocess –nevera person –that hadarousedhis ire, and of hearing profuse invectivein words incomprehensible to them, his nativeJerseyFrench. Theyalso tell of a kind, gentlemanly person who never condescended to those less gifted and who always madethemfeeltheyweremaking discoverieswithanequal partner. Hisbusy,challenging,professionallifewaslivedinparallelwithanother,evenmoredis- tinguished, in entomology. The exigencies of wartime and enemy occupation had led Roderick Dobson, a first-class amateurnaturalist, to form a junior section of theSociété Jersiaise which Walter joined and, in close collaboration with Dobson, embarked on in- vestigating theentiretyof Jersey’s insect fauna. Being unable to return to Oxford, Walter foundvaluable wartime employment in Jersey’s hospital’s pathologylaboratorythroughout theOccupation, which gavehim access to microscopes. Theresult was a series of papers in theSociété’s Annual Bulletins, mainlyWalter’s work, on moths andbutterflies, dragonflies, caddisflies,lacewings, mayfliesandalliedorders,andHeteroptera. In 1959 WaltermarriedMargaret Hinton, who was also employedat theResearch Cen- tre, and they settled in Chesham, near his work, wherethey brought up theirtwo children, DavidandHelen. About this timeWalterextendedhis interest, initially focussedon Heter optera, to othergroups of theHemiptera, particularlytheAuchenorrhyncha, in which he acquireda formidableexpertiseandan international reputation fortaxonomicstudies. He was electeda Fellow of theRoyal Entomological Society, servedon its council forsome years andwas a VicePresident from 1983 to 1985. His most important work fortheSoci- etywas thepublication of his fourparts on Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha, in theimportant series of Handbooks forthe Identification of British Insects. His set of thesebooks, with modern keys, providedvaluablenew encouragement to entomologists to studythis group. In 1984 hereceivedtheStamfordRaffles Awardfrom the Zoological Societyof London fordistinguishedcontributions to thetaxonomyandbiologyof Hemiptera. This was fol- lowedin 1986 with the awardbytheLinnean Society, themost prestigious of all natural historysocieties, of the H. H. BloomerAward foroutstanding work byan amateurbiolo- gist. In addition to his published contributions to practical insect taxonomy, and brilliant fieldwork Walter produced major studies in numerical taxonomy. His concept of the ‘uniquelyevolvedcharacter’, developedin a series of papers, mainly in Systematic Zoology between 1969 and’79, has been widelycitedandusedbytaxonomists in manyfields of bi- ology. ©Arbeitskreis Zikaden Mitteleuropas e.V. - download unter www.biologiezentrum.at ObituaryWalterJohnLe Quesne 29 Walter’s studies of variedgroups within theHemiptera took him to a numberof coun- tries in Europeforfieldwork, to meet otherexperts, usuallyprofessional biologists, and to attendconferences. Hemadecollections which area testimonyto consummateskill in dis- secting delicate insects, few of anysizeandmostlyverysmall, and displaying theirinternal features on accompanying tinypieces of card. His general collections hegaveto Liverpool World Museum at the University, and he deposited with the Société Jersiaise a virtually completecollection of Jersey’s Hemiptera along with otherinsects as soon as heassembled them. Membred’Honneurdela SociétéJersiaiseis a sparinglyawarded honour, andin rec ognition of Walter’s outstanding contributions to the work andobjectives of theSociétéhe wasnominatedaMembred’Honneurin1994. Walterhada keen interest in languages –and, incidentally, in alphabets –andtaught himself Serbo-Croat in threemonths priorto a fieldtrip to Jugoslavia, to addto his fluent German,bothlanguagesbeinghelpfulin workingwith entomologistsinhisfield. His intellectual energies foundfurtheroutlets in several directions. Thehousemagazine of Amersham plc–oneof theatomicenergyresearch establishment’s successivenames – publishedregularmathematical puzzles, of his devising, which werepopularandchalleng- ing even forhis scientificallyhigh-powered colleagues. This periodical also printedsome of his poems with which, with some justification, hewas, in his words, reasonably pleased. Making literaryjudgement poses a risk that one is likelyto cometo grief; myassessment is basedon comments of a former colleagueat Amersham, andsomepieces Waltergave me ‘to look after’ latein his lifewhen his sight was failing. Theyappearperceptive, original and characteristicallywitty. His final fieldof research was genealogy, a subject admirablysuitedto a relativelyself- containedislandpopulation such as Jersey’s, with reliablerecords of manyfamily surnames going back for centuries, of which Le Quesne and de Gruchy are typical examples. Re search into his own family’s origins producedmuch information on theprolificdeGruchys –his paternal grandmother’s family–andresulted in his book, with G. M. Dixon, The de Gruchys of Jersey was followed shortly by a similarly comprehensive and thoroughly re searchedstudy, The Le Quesnes of Jersey, both publishedbytheChannel Islands FamilyHis- torySociety. Bythis timeWalterwas suffering from inexorabledeterioration of vision. His great in- tellect was totallyunaffectedbythecausativecondition, andincreasing blindness was the cruellest of handicaps foronewhosechief lifelong recreation hadbeen conductedvirtually through theeyepieceof a microscope. Historical documents, not easyto readat thebest of times, became evermoredifficult forhim, and with remarkablepragmatism hereconciled himself to disposing of his collections, his microscopes andhis books. Hekept his com- puter, andhis programming skill enabledhim to enlargethecharacters on its screen to an inch high, at about twentyperline, which his eyes almost touching thescreen viewedin a rasterlike motion, while writing programs for pictorial puzzles and geometric games, mainlyformybenefit. Rectifying theerrors I was ableto point out each week becameal- most his soleintellectual challenge forthe next seven days. His computercharacters grew until therewereonlya dozen orso on each of fivelines out of thetwo orthreehundred lines of program forhis puzzles andpatterns, all of which hehadto carryin his own astonishing memory, as they couldnot bewritten down. Furtherattempts to seethem soon be camefutile. His frustration when things were not discerniblewouldhavetried a saint, but allhewouldallowhimselfbywayofcomplaint was that‘…itis ratherirritating’.

Load more