Edward Percy Stebbing
{{Short description|English forester and forest entomologist (1872–1960)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Edward Percy Stebbing FRSE FRGS FZS (4 January 1872 – 21 March 1960) was a pioneering English forester and forest entomologist in India. He was among the first to warn of desertification and desiccation and wrote on "The encroaching Sahara".
In 1935, he wrote of the "desert whose power is incalculable and whose silent and almost invisible approach must be difficult to estimate." He suggested that this was man-made and this led to a joint Anglo-French forestry mission from December 1936 to February 1937 that toured northern Nigeria and Niger to assess the danger of desertification.van Beusekom, Monica M (1999) From underpopulation to overpopulation. Environmental History. Apr 1999
Life
He was born in London on 4 January 1872, and was the second son of Edward Charles Stebbing (b. 1839). He was educated at St Paul's School, London. He then studied at the Royal Engineering College and Coopers Hill College (which specialised in training for the Indian Forest Service). He then studied at the University of Edinburgh and graduated with a MA.
From 1900 to 1910, he worked as Forest Entomologist and Zoologist for the Indian Forest Service.
In 1910, he returned to the University of Edinburgh as Professor of Forestry. He lived at 13 Wolseley Place, Edinburgh with his brother.Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1911
In the First World War, he was a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps.{{Lives of WWI | id= 4240837 | name= Percy Edward Stebbing }} He served on the Serbian Front in Macedonia, taking part in the Battle of Kajmakčalan and acting as transport officer to the Scottish Women's Hospitals.Kassabova, Kapka (2020), To the Lake: A Balkan Journey of War and Peace, Granta, pp. 212 & 213, {{isbn|978-1-78378-397-7}}
In 1923, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker, Ralph Allan Sampson, Arthur Crichton Mitchell and James Hartley Ashworth.{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=2018-08-21|archive-date=2016-03-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}
He retired in 1951 and died on 21 March 1960.
Family
In 1907, he married Maude Evelyn Brown (d. 1950).
Works
- Injurious Insects of Indian Forests (1899) [https://archive.org/details/injuriousinsects00steb online]
- Insect intruders in Indian homes (1909) [https://archive.org/details/insectintrudersi00stebrich online]
- Stalks in the Himalayas (1911) ([https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1911/12/03/110037037.pdf New York Times review]
- Jungle By-ways in India (1911) [https://archive.org/details/junglebywaysinin00stebrich online]
- Indian forest insects of economic importance. Coleoptera (1914) [https://archive.org/details/indianforestinse00stebuoft online]
- British Forestry (1916) [https://archive.org/details/britishforestryi00stebiala online]
- At the Serbian front in Macedonia (1917) [https://archive.org/stream/atserbianfrontin00steb online]{{Citation
|publisher = John Lane
|location = London
|title = At the Serbian front in Macedonia
|author = Stebbing, Edward Percy
|date = 1917
|oclc = 313792
|ol = 6605417M
}}
- From Czar to Bolshevik (1918) [https://archive.org/details/fromczartobolshe00stebrich online]
- The Forests of India (3 volumes) (1922)
- The forests of West Africa and the Sahara: a Study of Modern Conditions (London and Edinburgh, 1937)
Botanical Reference
{{botanist|Stebbing|Stebbing}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Sister project links| wikt=no | commons=no | b=no | n=no | q=no | s=Author:Edward Percy Stebbing | v=no | voy=no | species=no | d=no}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stebbing, Edward Percy}}
Category:British entomologists
Category:Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society
Category:Academics of the University of Edinburgh
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Category:British people in colonial India
Category:Fellows_of_the_Zoological_Society_of_London
{{UK-biologist-stub}}