Thomas de Grey, 6th Baron Walsingham (July 29, 1843 – December 3, 1919) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 and amateur entomologist.

Biography

Walsingham was the son of Thomas de Grey, 5th Baron Walsingham, and was born on Stanhope Street in Mayfair

Mayfair

Mayfair is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster.-History:Mayfair is named after the annual fortnight-long May Fair that took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today...

, the family's London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 house. He was educated at Eton

Eton College

Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....

 and Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

. He sat as Conservative

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for West Norfolk

West Norfolk (UK Parliament constituency)

West Norfolk or Norfolk Western was a county constituency in the county of Norfolk, which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the bloc vote system.The constituency was created by the Reform Act 1832 for the 1832 general...

 from 1865 until 1870, when he succeeded to the title and estates of his father, and entered the House of Lords

House of Lords

The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

. From 1874 to 1875 he served as a Lord-in-Waiting

Lord-in-Waiting

Most Lords in Waiting are Government whips in the House of Lords who are members of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. As members of the Royal Household their duties are nominal, though they are occasionally required to meet visiting political and state leaders on visits...

 (government whip) in the second Conservative government

Conservative Government 1874-1880

Benjamin Disraeli became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for the second time after Mr Gladstone's government was defeated in the General Election of 1874. Disraeli's foreign policy was seen as immoral by Gladstone, and following the latter's Midlothian Campaign, the government was heavily...

 of Benjamin Disraeli. From 1870 on he also ran the family's estate at Merton, Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

, served as trustee of the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

 and performed many other public functions.

Walsingham was a keen lepidopterist

Lepidopterist

A lepidopterist is a person who specialises in the study of Lepidoptera, members of an order encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...

, collecting butterflies and moths from a young age, and being particularly interested in microlepidoptera. His collection was one of the most important ever made, which after his purchase of the Zeller

Philipp Christoph Zeller

Philipp Christoph Zeller was a German entomologist.Zeller was born at Steinheim Württemberg, two miles from Marbach, the birthplace of Schiller. The family moved to Frankfurt where Philip went to the gymnasium where natural history was not taught. Instead, helped by Alois Metzner, he taught...

, Hofmann

Ottmar Hofmann

Ottmar Hofmann was a German entomologist.Ottmar Hofmann was a physician. As an entomologist he worked on Microlepidoptera...

 and Christoph

Hugo Theodor Christoph

Hugo Theodor Christoph was a German and Russian entomologist.A member of Russian Entomological Society Hugo Theodor Christoph was from 1880 curator of the Lepidoptera collections of the Russian Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich of Russia.His own collection was sold to Thomas de Grey, 6th Baron...

 collections contained over 260,000 specimens. He donated it to the Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...

, along with his library of 2,600 books.

Walsingham was elected a fellow of the Royal Society

Royal Society

The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...

 in 1887, and was a member of the Entomological Society of London, serving as President on two occasions. He married three times, but left no heir, and was succeeded as Baron by his half-brother.

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