Early life Charles de Worms was born in Park Lane, London on 19 January 1903, the son of Baron
Anthony Denis Maurice George de Worms (1869–1938) and Louisa Matilda Goldscmidt. His paternal great-grandfather,
Solomon Benedict de Worms (1801–1882), owned large plantations in
Ceylon and was made a
Hereditary Baron of the Austrian Empire by
Franz Joseph I of Austria (1830–1916), and his paternal grandmother was Henrietta Samuel. His paternal great-great-grandmother was Schönche Jeannette Rothschild (1771–1859), thus his paternal great-great-great-grandfather was
Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), the founder of the
Rothschild banking dynasty. As a result, his paternal great-great-great-granduncles were
Amschel Mayer Rothschild (1773–1855),
Salomon Mayer von Rothschild (1774–1855),
Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777–1836),
Carl Mayer von Rothschild (1788–1855), and
James Mayer de Rothschild (1792–1868). His great-great-uncles, who owned plantations in Ceylon with his great-grandfather, were
Maurice Benedict de Worms (1805–1867) and Gabriel Benedict de Worms (1802–1881). His paternal great-uncle was
Henry de Worms, 1st Baron Pirbright (1840–1903). He was educated at
Eton College and
King's College, Cambridge.
Career Most of de Worms working life was spent as a
chemist in the Institute of the Royal Cancer Hospital and
Porton Down Experimental Station, producing numerous papers on
cancer. He became interested in
ornithology but
lepidoptera was his main interest and he published a large number of papers and notes, mainly in ''
The Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation. and the Entomologist's Gazette''. In 1962 he published
The Macrolepidoptera of Wiltshire. He later published
The Moths of London and Its Surroundings. De Worms was an extensive traveller, collecting
lepidoptera in Europe, North Africa, Australia, the West Indies and Canada. He was a Fellow of the
Royal Entomological Society of London and a member of both the London Natural History Society and the
British Entomological and Natural History Society. ==References==