By the death at the age of 84 of Mr William H. Searle there passed away, on 6 April i960, one who had served the Laboratory longer than anyone else and who, during his 63 years as fisherman-collector, had installed himself in the affections of countless biologists the world over. From December 1895 until his retirement on 30 September 1958 his assiduous and unwearied devotion to his collecting duties, year in and year out whatever the weather, on the shore or in his boats, earned him the lasting gratitude of all those innumerable research workers, teachers and students who relied on ‘Bill’ to procure living material for their researches or studies. He, more than anyone else, knew where the animals were to be found, how to capture them without damage and how to ensure their safe arrival at the Laboratory hours later. More than one student who had been collecting on the shore alongside Bill has later been astonished to observe the large and varied assortment of creatures emerging alive and kicking from one small and tightly packed basket. He had a keen eye for the little things—Gromia, praniza larvae and the like, from the rock crevices he split open with his crow-bar. These he would carefully transfer from silted rock surface to honey jar on the point of his pocket-knife. He knew well their scientific names, though foreigners would often have difficulty in recognizing them when pronounced with a strong Devonshire accent. It was usually the old names current during his youth that he knew, and he was not alone in deploring the activities of systematists in so frequently changing and re-changing so many of them.