Sir Eric Cecil Ansorge, CSI, CIE,

FRES Fres ( el, Φρες) is a village and former municipality in the Chania regional unit, Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it is part of the municipality Apokoronas, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has a ...

(6 March 1887 - 3 January 1977) was a British

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million ...

officer who worked in Orissa and Bihar in India. He was also a keen amateur entomologist, writing an official report on silk industry along with

Harold Maxwell-Lefroy Harold Maxwell-Lefroy (20 January 1877 – 14 October 1925) was an English entomologist. He served as a Professor of Entomology at Imperial College London and as the second Imperial Entomologist to India. He left India after the death of two of hi ...

while in India apart from making collections of beetles and butterflies. He was knighted upon his retirement in 1946. Ansorge was born in England, the son of explorer naturalist

William John Ansorge William John Ansorge (6 April 1850 – 31 October 1913 at Luanda) was a physician who worked in Angola and Uganda and is known for exploring the fauna of the African region. A large number of species have been named after him based on the specime ...

who had just moved from Mauritius to England. He was educated at St. Paul's School after which he went to

St. John's College, Oxford St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its found ...

, qualifying the Indian Civil Services in 1911. He worked in Orissa, Bihar, and was posted Commissioner for the Andaman Islands but did not serve there due to the Japanese occupation of the islands. While in India, he coauthored a report on the silk industry along with

. He also briefly served in

Nyasaland Nyasaland () was a British protectorate located in Africa that was established in 1907 when the former British Central Africa Protectorate changed its name. Between 1953 and 1963, Nyasaland was part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasal ...

. He returned to England from India in 1946 and lived at Chalfont-St.-Peter where he began to examine the local lepidoptera intensively. In 1969 he published the ''Macrolepidoptera of Buckinghamshire''. His collections were bequeathed to the Aylesbury Museum. He also left money for an Ansorge Award set up by the Amateur Entomologists' Society. Ansorge married Wenonah Hardwick Leather, daughter of

John Walter Leather John Walter Leather (26 December 1860 – 14 November 1934) was an agricultural chemist who worked in India as the first Imperial Agricultural Chemist at the Imperial Agricultural Research Institute in Pusa, Bihar. Appointed in 1892, he worked o ...

in 1915 at Pusa. Through this marriage his sisters in law were engineer and businesswoman Sheila Leather, and Alice Muriel Hitchinson, wife of

Claud Mackenzie Hutchinson Claud Mackenzie Hutchinson CIE (29 April 1869 - 2 August 1941) was an English bacteriologist who worked in India as Imperial Agricultural Bacteriologist. Hutchinson studied at Trinity College, Glenalmond before going to St. John's College, Cambri ...

References

External links

Amateur Entomologists' Society

Archives
* The Silk Industry in India (1917) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ansorge, Eric Cecil 1887 births 1977 deaths Alumni of St John's College, Oxford English lepidopterists Indian Civil Service (British India) officers People educated at St Paul's School, London People from Chiltern District Silk in India Fellows of the Royal Entomological Society Knights Bachelor Companions of the Order of the Star of India Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire Nyasaland people British people in colonial India