Alfred Barton Rendle FRS (19 January 1865 – 11 January 1938) was an English botanist. Rendle was born in

Lewisham Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in the London Plan as one of ...

to John Samuel and Jane Wilson Rendle. He was educated in Lewisham where he first became interested in plants,

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, Southwark and St John's College, Cambridge. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cambridge and Bachelor of Science from University of London in 1887. He was awarded Master of Arts degree from Cambridge in 1891 and D.Sc. degree from London in 1898. He won scholarships from his school and universities that covered most of the cost of his education and his move from Cambridge to London was prompted by a vacancy for a salaried position as an assistant in the Botanical Department of the British Museum. This made him focus on systematic botany for his career, focusing on gymnosperms, monocotyledons, and the Apetalae. In 1894 he obtained a lectureship at The Birkbeck Institute, teaching during the evenings. He was

Keeper of Botany The Keeper of Botany was a position at the Natural History Museum — formerly British Museum (Natural History) — in London, England, and served as head of department for botany. The position was in place between 1827 and 2013. Keepers of Bota ...

at the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

from 1906 to 1930, in succession to

George Robert Milne Murray George Robert Milne Murray (11 November 1858 – 16 December 1911) was a Scottish naturalist, botanist, diatomist and algologist, noted for his association with T. H. Huxley and with the Discovery Expedition. He was the naturalist aboard the ...

. In 1905, Rendle attended the

International Botanical Congress International Botanical Congress (IBC) is an international meeting of botanists in all scientific fields, authorized by the International Association of Botanical and Mycological Societies (IABMS) and held every six years, with the location rotati ...

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, where he was appointed on to the editorial committee for the ''International Rules of Botanical Nomenclature'' (now superseded by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants and the

International Code of Nomenclature for Bacteria The International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP) formerly the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria (ICNB) or Bacteriological Code (BC) governs the scientific names for Bacteria and Archaea.P. H. A. Sneath, 2003. A short histor ...

) a role which he continued in until 1935. Rendle published a number of books. Perhaps the best known of these was ''The Classification of Flowering Plants'', which saw a gap of over 20 years between the publication of its two volumes – the first was published in 1904, but readers had to wait until 1925 for volume two. This long gap was attributed by Rendle to his "increasing official and non-official duties". These included acting as botany editor for the

Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is a 29-volume reference work, an edition of the '' Encyclopædia Britannica''. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. S ...

, published in 1911, editor of the Journal of Botany (1924 – 1938), and revising the 7th edition ''Handbook of British Flora'' (1924, author G. Bentham). Rendle was president of the

Quekett Microscopical Club The Quekett Microscopical Club is a learned society for the promotion of microscopy. Its members come from all over the world, and include both amateur and professional microscopists. It is a registered charity and not-for-profit publisher, with th ...

from 1916 to 1921 and president of the

Linnean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

from 1923 to 1927. he had been a Fellow of the Linnean Society since 1888, and was its secretary 1916 – 1923. His contemporaries considered that he had a keen sense of duty which he brought to his roles at the British Museum and contribution to the scientific community. His teaching focused on delivering fundamental knowledge to undergraduates rather than advanced study.

References

Bibliography

*Stearn, William T.,''The Natural History Museum at South Kensington''
Books by A.B. Rendle at the Biodiversity Library
including ''Flora of Jamaica'' coauthored with

William Fawcett William or Bill Fawcett or ''variation'', may refer to: People * William Fawcett (actor) (1894–1974), American actor who was awarded the ''Légion d'honneur'' * William Fawcett (author) (1902–1941), English journalist and writer on horses, hun ...

. 19th-century British botanists 20th-century British botanists 1865 births 1938 deaths Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Employees of the Natural History Museum, London English botanists Fellows of the Royal Society People educated at St Olave's Grammar School Presidents of the Linnean Society of London Veitch Memorial Medal recipients {{UK-botanist-stub