Edgar Harold Strickland | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Edgar Harold Strickland

Edgar Harold Strickland, entomologist, soldier (b at Erith, Eng 29 May 1889; d at Victoria 31 May 1962). After studies in England (1909-11), Strickland attended Harvard University (1911-13).

Strickland, Edgar Harold

Edgar Harold Strickland, entomologist, soldier (b at Erith, Eng 29 May 1889; d at Victoria 31 May 1962). After studies in England (1909-11), Strickland attended Harvard University (1911-13). In 1913 he was "loaned" to Canada to obtain field experience for proposed research on sleeping sickness in Africa. He was entomology officer for Alberta (1913-21), operating an entomological field station at Lethbridge. He founded and headed the University of Alberta's entomology department (1922-54) and was the sole member for 24 years. Strickland's 60 entomological papers range through history, ecology, life cycles, taxonomy and adverse effects of DDT, with pest control a major concern of his career.

His academic endeavours were paralleled by military activity, in the Canadian Machine Gun Corps during World War I, as commander of the University of Alberta's Canadian Officer Training Corps (1935-40) and the Canadian Army Base at Wetaskiwin, Alberta (1942-44) and as aide-de-camp to the lieutenant-governor of Alberta (1936-39). Honours included the King's Jubilee Medal (1935) and the Coronation Medal (1937).