John Henry Leech

John Henry Leech

John Henry Leech (5 December 1862 – 29 December 1900, Hurdcott House, Salisbury)[1] was an English entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera and Coleoptera.

Leech was born of John and Elizabeth (neé Ashworth) Leech in Bank Hall, near Preston, Lancashire. His father was a wealthy merchant.

Leech was educated at Eton College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He lost his right hand in an accident while partridge shooting in Cambridge.

In 1889 Leech married Beatrice Ellen Leatthias, daughter of wealthy New York businessman Henry Leatthias. They went to live in Hurdcott House, Barford St Martin, Wiltshire.[2]

Leech's collections from China, Japan and Kashmir are in the Natural History Museum, London, along with specimens from Morocco, the Canary Islands and Madeira. He wrote British Pyralides (1886) and Butterflies from China, Japan and Corea in three volumes (1892–1894).

Leech was a fellow of the Linnean Society and the Royal Entomological Society and a member of the Société entomologique de France and Entomologischen Verein zu Berlin. In 1885 a lizard species, Enyalius leechii, was named after him.[3]

He is buried in St Edith's churchyard, Baverstock, Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK.

  1. ^ South, Richard (1902). Catalogue of the Collection of Palaearctic Butterflies Formed by the Late John Henry Leech, and Presented to the Trustees of the British Museum by his Mother, Mrs. Eliza Leech. Printed by order of the Trustees of the British Museum. p. iii.
  2. ^ Russell, Alan P (2019). "The Big Houses Of The Heatons: Bank Hall". Alan P. Russell. Retrieved 18 October 2024.
  3. ^ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael & Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Leech", p. 154).