16
In the closing stages of the Arakan
Campaign, with the Japanese in retreat,
Emmet was asked by his general to select a
new forward position for the Divisional
Headquarters and was later to be congratulated
on his eventual choice. The fact that this site
was an excellent one for butterflies was surely
no more than a happy coincidence...
Collecting continued, even as enemy shells
exploded a few hundred yards away.
When the war ended Emmet was asked to
write the history of the Arakan Campaign and
later became secretary of the 25th Indian
Division reunion, a task he performed until its
demise in 1996. In 1948 he wrote, with
General Sir Philip Christison and Aubrey
(now Lord)Buxton, Birds of Arakan which
was published in the journal of the Bombay
Natural History Society. It was the first of
many papers to be devoted to natural history.
After the war Emmet returned to teaching
at St. Edwards School and later took a part-
time job with the RAF on their Officers
Selection Board. As an undergraduate he had
been a member of the University Air Squadron
and had been taught to fly by the RAF. For
several years in the 1930s he possessed his
own aeroplane, a Bristol Fighter sold off dirt
cheap by the Royal Air Force, and was much
more interested in flying that entomology.
His interest in birds began to wane as that
in Lepidoptera rose. In 1961 in Ireland (a
country visited on numerous occasions) he
noticed on a bog a number of attractive small
moths flying which he could not identify, but
set himself the task of doing so. These were
the tortricid Aethes piercei, examples of which
are still in his collection and which bear the
label 20 May 1961. This date set Emmet
firmly on the course of microlepidoptera
study.
At this time few people were working the
smaller moths. Interest in them had been high
in the previous century, but not now, and
Emmet saw an opportunity to make important
discoveries and make considerable
contributions to our knowledge. From the mid-
sixties his output of scientific papers began to
grow. Emmet moved to Essex to live with his
mother and aunt at Labrey Cottage in Saffron
Walden. He married Katie in 1971 and the pair
became familiar figures in the local
countryside.
I was shown Ypsolopha sequella resting on the
trunk of a sycamore, a beautiful green and
black moth which looks not unlike a miniature
merveille du jour, and superbly camouflaged
against the bark of the tree. Keen vision
backed by experience allows Maitland to see
things not immediately obvious. Once, at
Skipper's Island, we had been wandering by
some trees when he nodded at a sallow and
into his dictation machine murmured
''Batrachedra praeangusta''. I could see
nothing. "Where, there..?" I pointed to the
trunk and immediately four or five moths
launched themselves into the air and were
gone. "Of course they'll fly away if you point
at them!" Abashed. I began sweeping my net
up and down nearby trunks and secured a few
examples. Another technique learnt.
The possibilities at Langham temporarily
exhausted, we headed back to the car park
having recorded sixty-one species, sixteen of
them new to the ten kilometre square - a very
productive trip indeed. Three days later, with
customary efficiency, I received a typed list -
the first of many he has sent me over the
years.
For a time the Emmet's collecting trips were
restricted to weekends, but following his
retirement and with The moths and butterflies
of Great Britain and Ireland (MBGBI) series
at the planning stage (volume one was
published in 1976), they were able to devote
more time to field work and would
occasionally travel as far as Yorkshire for a
day's recording. Leaving home in the dark and
returning home late for midnight lunch, these
were trips he describes as being great fun.
In 1969 he was elected as a Fellow of the
Royal Entomological Society, of which he was
Vice President in 1980 to 1981 and is now an
Honorary Fellow; and he became President of
the British Entomological and Natural History
Society in 1971. In 1981 he received the
Stamford Raffles Award, which is restricted to
entomologists, from the Zoological Society of
London.
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 16 (1999)