Frederick Augustus Dixey

Frederick Augustus Dixey, FRS[1] (9 December 1855 – 16 January 1935) was president of the Royal Entomological Society of London, and was a distinguished British entomologist.[2]

Frederick Dixey was educated at Highgate School from 1867 to 1874, and was later a governor of the school from 1920 until his death.[3] He won a scholarship to Wadham College, Oxford, where after starting in optometry, the profession of his father and grandfather, he chose to read medicine. He became a fellow of Wadham[4] and also the sub-warden. He felt drawn to the Church of St Barnabas, Oxford, known for its Anglo-Catholic tradition and ceremonies; he sang in the choir for nearly forty years. Dixey never practised medicine, but devoted himself to natural history. He was in March 1900 nominated to be a curator of the Hope collections at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.[5] He was an expert on the "white" butterflies, Pieridae.

Dixey was an early supporter of Darwinian evolution who defended natural selection against anti-Darwinians.[1][6]

Dixey was knocked down and killed by a car in 1935 as he attempted to cross the road.[1]

Dixey's son, Harold Giles Dixey (1893–1974), assistant master at the Dragon School in Oxford,[4] was a writer.

References
  1. Poulton, E. B. (1935). "Frederick Augustus Dixey. 1855-1935". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 1 (4): 465. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1935.0010.
  2. Dobson, J. (1951). "Frederick Augustus Dixey" (PDF). The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. British Volume. 33B (2): 275–277. PMID 14832332. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  3. Ed. Boreham, J.Y. Highgate School Register 1838-1938 (4th ed.). pp. xxi, 55.
  4. "Collection Level Description: Dixey Family Papers". Oxford: Bodleian Library. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
  5. "University intelligence". The Times (36089). London. 14 March 1900. p. 6.
  6. England, Richard. (2001). Natural Selection, Teleology, and the Logos: From Darwin to the Oxford Neo-Darwinists. Osiris, 2nd Series, Vol. 16, Science in Theistic Contexts: Cognitive Dimensions. pp. 270-287.


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