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Suffolk Natural History, Vol. 57
Obituary – Alan Hubbard 1948 - 2021 Alan Hubbard died on 9 May 2021, aged 73. Alan & his late wife, Janis shared a life immersed in nature, they loved walking, birdwatching, and being outdoors. Alan was a keen entomologist; he recorded every creature he witnessed. He accumulated an impressive collection of specimens, all immaculately pinned and documented. These are going to Ipswich Museum and will be a significant addition for groups like Diptera, and Hymenoptera. He also maintained a large database (over 28,000 records) using the Mapmate software which, together with many more records in paper files, are being passed on to Suffolk Biodiversity Information Service as per his wishes. He regularly submitted records to county and national recorders, an Alan Hubbard, Italy 2012 act which is invaluable to natural history. He had a particular interest in hoverflies (Syrphidae) contributing many records to the national Hoverfly Recording Scheme. He recorded 63 species of hoverfly at the SWT Bromeswell Green reserve over a ten-year period. He joined SNS in 1986 (though he had been an active naturalist since the early 1970s) and served as County Diptera Recorder from 1993 to 2000. He was also a prolific recorder of birds, shieldbugs, dragonflies, moths and butterflies. Alan and Janis enjoyed holidays in mountainous places such as Scotland, Northumberland, the Alps and the Lake District. They loved anywhere where nature could be observed and enjoyed; he always had a pair of binoculars to hand. Of course, whilst in Suffolk Alan always recorded the location details, he was in to ensure accurate records. He also kept a comprehensive garden diary, just last year he had a heron fishing in his pond and a hunting sparrowhawk. He loved music; his home was rarely silent. He was a teenager in the early 1960s when the Beatles started. He knew everything they did both collectively and individually. One of his favourite memories was attending a Paul McCartney concert in Verona in 2013 with his niece, Sally. He’d never seen any of the Beatles live and loved it! Other music favourites included Pink Floyd, and Genesis, Back in the 1970s, he once queued all night to get tickets for the Genesis concert when they went on sale; he also loved Phil Collins, Mark Knopfler & Runrig to name but a few. He often whistled and you could almost always identify the tune. I knew when he was whistling that he was happy. Al tried to listen to Ken Bruce's Pop Master on Radio 2 every day and knew lots of random music trivia - he had a three in ten prepared for several acts, sadly, they never came up!
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Alan also loved food, his favourite being anything fishy...Clams, Seabass, Prawns....washed down with a glass of chilled wine. Alan was a quiet person and appeared shy to new people but had a very dry sense of humour and a cheeky grin. Everyone who knew him loved his gentleness and his ability to chat to anyone about nature. Alan followed Ipswich Town Football Club from an early age and although he wasn’t a season ticket holder, he often attended matches. When he wasn’t able to go, he always listened on the radio. He was one of the gentlest, kindest, and most selfless people. A gentleman in every sense of the word, who had a lovely sense of humour and was a really interesting person, who had such a wonderful knowledge of nature. Sally Green (niece) Bibliography Hubbard, A. C. (1991). The Hoverflies (Syrphidae) of Bromeswell Green Nature Reserve. Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 27: 13-15. Hubbard, A. C. (1995). Notes on Suffolk Shieldbugs. Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 31: 20-24. Hubbard, A. C. (1996). Suffolk Robber Flies (Asilidae). Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 32: 32-34. Hubbard, A. C. (2000). Recent records of some notable and rare Diptera from Suffolk. Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 36: 76-80. Hubbard, A. C. (2004). Notes of Suffolk records of the genus Volucella (Diptera, Syrphidae). Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 40: 113-118. Hubbard, A. C. (2009). Notes on Suffolk Shieldbugs. Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 45: 11-14.
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