Background
Sloane was born 20 April 1858 or 1858 in Street Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, the second son of merchant and sheep expert Alexander Sloane and homemaker Annabella Helen (née Gibson).
Sloane was born 20 April 1858 or 1858 in Street Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, the second son of merchant and sheep expert Alexander Sloane and homemaker Annabella Helen (née Gibson).
He studied for some time at Melbourne"s Scotch College.
His sheep earned him recognition at many sheep shows. As an entomologist, Sloane described more than 600 new insect species. His expertise were the ground and tiger beetles.
He later became a global authority on ground beetles.
They had six children – four were daughters and two were sons. Fellow entomologist Herbert James Carter described Sloane as "unselfish" and "stoic by nature".
However, he suffered a financial crisis in later years. He was reportedly very fit for his age and was free from any illness until a while before his death, when he experienced cardiac asthma.
He had planned to retire in Canberra.
Sloane died on 20 October 1932 at the Bunnerong Hospital in Young, New South Wales. Following his death, his widow donated his extensive beetle collection, now known as the Thomas Sloane Collection, to the Division of Economic Entomology of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, in accordance of Sloane"s wishes.
