F. A. S. (Francis Andrew Spilsbury) Reid

Francis Andrew Spilsbury Reid was an English clergyman and author who held an M.A. from St John’s College, Cambridge. By 1914, he was serving as vicar of St Anselm’s Church on Madeira Road in Streatham, London.

Reid’s surviving literary legacy is Comic Insects, published in the 1870s by Frederick Warne & Co. The imaginative volume paired his text with colorful illustrations by Berry F. Berry, engraved by the Dalziel Brothers and printed by Kronheim & Co., reflecting the Victorian era’s fascination with natural history, visual storytelling, and playful fantasy. He died in 1921.