Eric W Classey, J.P., F.R.E.S. :: 1916 - 2008
Memory no.4
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Reuben Singleton |
I first met Eric when I was perhaps 8 or 9 years
old in Southrop, Gloucestershire where he lived at the time,
1977. At the Southrop Primary School (a 2 room affair
with perhaps 30 pupils) there was a cabinet of moths and
butterflies which had been donated by Eric with which I had
always been fascinated and which had inspired me to learn more
about them. Eric had then written an article in the
Parish Newsletter bemoaning the lack of natural history
knowledge amongst the children of today compared with when he
grew up.
Stung by this (and egged on by my mother) I wrote to Eric explaining that some children did know a little about natural history and went on to furnish him with a list of butterflies that I had seen on the farm where we lived. An invitation to tea soon arrived and thus a life-long friendship was born. Eric devoted a huge amount of his time to teaching myself and my best friend, Shaun Crage, all about moths - indeed cycling up to Southrop to see the night's catch became a fixture in my life for a few years. The Independent obituary captured Eric as I knew him extremely well, particularly his generosity - i still have the 2 copies of Souths Moths in the book case behind where I am sitting as I write this. In time Eric gave me a moth trap of my own which I ran at the farm for a few years until the pressures/competing priorities took over in my teenage years. It clearly made an impression though as I bought a new moth trap 2 years ago and I am now the Moth Recorder for Peebleshire. I am sure Eric would be pleased by this - a tangible result of his early mentoring. On a number of occasions, Eric took me out on field trips to find some rare moth or orchid. The most memorable journey was to the Chilterns where we tried and failed to find Monkey Orchid and Ghost Orchid but he did introduce me to the smell of the Goat Moth Caterpillar! I now make a full time living as an ecologist being Principal Ecologist for Jacobs in Edinburgh. Again, I think Eric's enthusiasm at an impressionable age had an influence on my career. You were truly lucky to have such a wonderful man as your father and I will miss my correspondence with him. |
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