John William Heslop Harrison died on 23 January 1967 at his home in Birtley, County Durham, aged eighty-six. He was a pioneer in studies on melanism in moths and on genetics, sex and evolution in moths, roses and willows. He was also a most notable field naturalist with a particular interest in biogeography. He belonged to a generation of school teachers who later became university dons and achieved distinction in their respective fields. Harrison was born in Birtley and, with the exception of twelve years in Middlesbrough, lived in his native village until his death. With coalmines surrounding his birthplace, and at Middlesbrough with blast furnaces in sight, Harrison dwelt throughout his whole life amid industrialism. His father, George Heslop Harrison, of forthright and sturdy character, was a foreman patternmaker in the Birtley Ironworks. His mother ( née Hull) loved plants and had the green fingers of the born gardener. She was one of the very few to whom he would entrust his moths if he had to be absent from home. It was from her that Harrison inherited his bent towards natural history. Other influences encouraged this bent. There was his uncle, the Rev. J . E. Hull, M.A., D.Sc.(Hon. Durham), a true and lonely scholar who, in his country parishes in Northumberland, wrought and wrote as an authority on the lore and language of Northumbria and its natural history, with especial regard to the spiders and mites. Then there was his neighbour, Charles Robson, his mentor as a youth; a ‘working-man naturalist’ of fine character, poor in goods and health, his closing years made easier when his former apprentice in field craft obtained for him a grant from the Ray Society.