William Forsell Kirby

Johanna's younger brother was the entomologist August Kappel (1840-1915) who became a fellow of the Linnean Society.

In 1867 Kirby became a curator in the Museum of the Royal Dublin Society, and produced a Synonymic Catalogue of Diurnal Lepidoptera (1871; Supplement 1877).

He moved to London in 1879 when he joined the staff of the British Museum (Natural History) as an assistant, after the death of Frederick Smith.

[3] Kirby had a wide range of interests, knew many languages (a working knowledge of German, Italian, Persian, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Danish and Finnish) and fully translated Finland's national epic, the Kalevala, from Finnish into English.

Kirby also provided many footnotes to Sir Richard Burton's translation of the Arabian Nights.

An obituary was written by his son who noted that he was “never tiring assistance to all who required help or counsel endeared him to a large circle of friends and acquaintances”.