Date Published:
July 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

James Fletcher

Fletcher, James (1852-1908), naturalist, (was born at Ashe, near Wrotham, Kent ; England, on March 28, 1852, the second son of Joseph Flitcroft Fletcher and Mary Ann Hayward. He was educated at King's School, Rochester ; and in 1871 he entered the service of the Bank of British North America in London. In 1874 he was transferred to Canada ; but in 1876 he left the bank to accept an appointment in the Library of Parliament at Ottawa . He was employed here until 1884; and he then became Dominion entomologist in the department of agriculture. He was one of the founders of the Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club, and in 1885 he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Canada. Seventeen species of butterflies bear his name. He was a voluminous contributor to scientific periodicals; and he published, in collaboration with George H. Clark, The farm weeds of Canada (Ottawa, 1906). He died at Montreal on November 8, 1908. In 1879, he married Eleanor Gertrude, eldest daughter of Sir Collingwood Schreiber; and by her he had two daughters. He was an LL.D. of Queen's University, Kingston (1896).

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., p. 353.