William Denison Roebuck, (5 January 1851 – 15 February 1919) was an English Naturalist, collector and writer, specialising in Malacology, Conchology and Limacology. He was one of the founding members and secretary of the Yorkshire Union of Naturalists, and the editor of its journal The Naturalist.
Early life
William Denison Roebuck was born in Leeds on 5 January 1851, and resided there until seventeen years of age, when his parents removed their summer residence to Pannal, a village near Harrogate, and during his summer residences there in 1868 and succeeding years, he commenced the active collection, study and registry of the Butterflies and other insects met with, encouraged by the possession and perusal of Coleman's British Butterflies. His observations upon the Bees and allied groups made at this period were placed on record in the Victoria County Histories.
Career
Entomology
Although not professing to be an Entomologist, Roebuck was always interested in that science, and was rarely absent from a meeting of the Entomological Section of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union. In his earlier days he had done excellent work in the science, including a paper entitled 'Locusts in Yorkshire', which appeared in The Naturalist in 1877. The title does not indicate the scope of that paper, which was in reality a history of all the known locust flights throughout Britain from the years 1842 to 1876, and was at the time of his death the most comprehensive and exhaustive account of that subject. Then at one time he was greatly interested in Hymenoptera, and was largely responsible for the list of that group of insects in the Victoria History of Yorkshire, as he was also for the entire Entomological chapters in the Victoria Histories of some of the other Northern Counties of England. For very many years he had kept records, with references, of all the papers and notes referring to all orders of insects (when he could do so, cutting out and keeping the papers or notes themselves) published in the various journals, referring to Yorkshire and other North of England Counties, and so was in possession of a vast store of information which was always available to any responsible author writing on any particular subject connected with Entomology. His help to the science in this way was considerable.
He was positively associated with the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, The Conchological Society, the Leeds Naturalists' Field Club, the Leeds Conchological Club, the Leeds Philatelic Society, and other groups.
Learned societies
The Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, of which he was the inspirer and organiser, had ever a chief place in his affections and interest, for he it was who conceived the idea of its formation by the enlargement of the sphere of activity and usefulness of the West Riding Consolidated Naturalists' Society, an Association of the Natural History Societies of South-west Yorkshire, of which Roebuck was appointed joint secretary with J. M. Barber, of Heckmondwike, in 1876.
In the following year with the enthusiastic co-operation of G. T. Porritt, C. P. Hobkirk and other leading Yorkshire Scientists, the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union was established as a means of a more efficient unification of Yorkshire scientific effort, while the subsequent adoption of Roebuck's suggestion to institute working sections for each branch of Natural History was remarkably successful and tended more fully to ensure a closer fellowship and a more general spirit of co-operation among the numerous Yorkshire Societies.
This powerful Union, constituted by the federation of upwards of forty local Natural History Societies, comprising some thousands of members, was then an organisation second only in influence and membership to the British Association, and a long list of distinguished scientists held the post of President, among them being Roebuck, who by the unanimous wish of the Union held that position in 1903, and as the topic for his Valedictory Address, placed on record a full and authoritative history of the Union and The Naturalist from their inception.
He it was who conceived and constituted the 'Fungus Forays' which were such a great success, as to eventually become one of the leading features of the Union's work. The first foray was held in 1881 at Studley and Harrogate, and followed by the second in 1888, and were so thoroughly appreciated by those concerned, that the meetings were arranged as Annual events, and the results obtained culminated by the publication, in the Transactions of the Union, of The Fungus Flora of Yorkshire, by the joint labours of George Massee and Charles Crossland.