William Denison Roebuck

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.

In addition to all these duties he personally made all the arrangements for the numerous excursions and meetings held during each year for business purposes or for the investigation of the fauna and flora of the county.

[3] Besides these calls upon his time and energy he in 1881, in association with Dr. Clarke, prepared and published the important and standard work The Vertebrate Fauna of Yorkshire which the bibliographic and scientific knowledge they possessed, enabled them to issue with remarkable completeness.

In addition he gave priceless and unstinted help to friends and correspondents upon very diverse subjects, either the results of his own personal experience or culled from the enormous mass of classified records which he had accumulated by years of industry and research.

E. A. Woodruffe-Peacock, J. F. Musham, H. Wallis Kew and other Lincolnshire Naturalists he thoroughly and systematically investigated its Molluscan fauna, of which he has already published a preliminary list and accumulated the material for a more complete account.

[5] As Secretary in 1871 and for many years afterwards he worked untiringly in the interests of the Society, perfecting its organisation and increasing its usefulness, so that from the training and experience there acquired, it is not surprising that it was one of the most successful provincial Societies and has turned out an unusually large proportion of skilled zoological investigators, who have been or are now acting as Museum Directors or Curators not only in Leeds but in Dublin, Edinburgh, Calcutta, Sydney, Adelaide, Christchurch, Wellington and elsewhere, the present Chief Inspector of Canadian Fisheries also received his early training here, as did the Professor of Zoology of Sheffield University, and others.

[6] As a Malacologist, Roebuck was one of the four original founders of The Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland, an organization which went on to have a numerous and influential membership not merely in the United Kingdom, but in all parts of the Western world.

[7] As a further representative example of his interest and activity in the cause of science, during his long and useful life, may be reckoned the great and valued help and guidance he rendered in the formation of The Craven Naturalists' and Scientific Association thirty-two years before his death, contributing afterwards in many ways to its welfare and progress.

On that occasion Professor Garstang, in citing the grounds for the distinction bestowed, acclaimed him as 'the pioneer and organizer of the systematic survey of the natural history of the county, the man of method, insisting upon the guarantees of accuracy and completeness, the keeper of our records, a student of many sided interests, and of indefatigable perseverance.

'[8] He was indeed not only the inspirer of energy and persistence, his was also the guiding hand which led the real workers into habits of systematic investigation and publication; he inculcated the combination of broad views in general, with rigid and detailed registration of the material results.

[9] During 1904-1906 he travelled extensively abroad visiting Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, and Egypt, and made many interesting additions to scientific knowledge of the diffusion and dominance of the European species of mollusks and other organisms which had been designedly or unwittingly introduced by man to those countries.