Arthur Wade was a botanist and lichenologist. He was Deputy Curator in the Department of Botany at the

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from 1920 until 1961. He was president of the

British Lichen Society The British Lichen Society (BLS) was founded in 1958 with the objective of promoting the study and conservation of lichen. Although the society was founded in London, UK, it is also of relevance to lichens worldwide. It has been a registered ch ...

from 1964 until 1966.

Early life, education and personal life

Arthur Wade was born in Leicester on 22 November 1895. He attended a grammar school in Leicester and then the local technical college. He became interested in botany as a child and organised collections of wild plants that he had pressed to preserve. This enthusiasm was supported by the botany curator at Leicester Museum, A. R. Horwood, and Wade worked informally with him after leaving school. In 1915 he became a member of the Botanical Exchange Club (which later became the

Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland The Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) is a scientific society for the study of flora, plant distribution and taxonomy relating to Great Britain, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. The society was founded as the Botani ...

). In 1917 he and Florence Annie Elizabeth Woods (died 1961) married. In 1981 he emigrated to be with family in New Zealand. He painted in watercolours and oils and was a founder member of the South Wales Group of artists. His works were exhibited at the Royal Cambrian Academy, the South Wales Art Society and the Swansea and Newport Art Society. Several of his paintings are in the collection of

Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, branded as simply Amgueddfa Cymru (formerly the National Museums and Galleries of Wales and legally National Museum of Wales), is a Welsh Government sponsored body that comprises seven museums in Wales: * N ...

Career

In 1912 Wade was apprenticed as an apprentice printing compositor. In 1917 he joined the army, posted to France and was injured to his right elbow and face during the First World War. The consequence of the injuries was that he could no longer work as a compositor and also had to learn to draw and paint with his left hand. In 1919 he started a course at Northampton Technical College about business management. In 1920 he was successful in his application for a post as assistant in the herbarium at National Museum of Wales. Wade's subsequent career was spent in the Department of Botany at the main site in

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until he retired in 1961. In 1943 he was promoted to assistant keeper (later termed deputy curator). He joined the

British Bryological Society The British Bryological Society is an academic society dedicated to bryology, which encourages the study of bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts). It publishes the peer-reviewed ''Journal of Bryology''. History The Society developed from ...

in 1946 and was a member of its council from 1954 until 1955. He continued in an honorary research position at the museum after his retirement. As well as his scientific research and publications, he developed the museum's

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

. There were a few thousand specimens when he was appointed, but 200,000 including nearly 50,000 bryophytes by the time he retired. He organised obtaining these from several collectors such as the purchase of the bryophyte herbaria of J. A. Wheldon (17,000 specimens), D. A. Jones (10,000) and A. R. Horwood (2,000) were purchased in addition to the donation of specimens collected by H. H. Knight (6,000). He also collected many specimens himself at weekends. He worked on many types of plant. He was an expert on ''

Symphytum ''Symphytum'' is a genus of flowering plants in the borage family, Boraginaceae, known by the common name comfrey (pronounced ). There are 59 recognized species.WFO (2022): Symphytum L. Published on the Internet; http://www.worldfloraonline.org/ ...

'' and ''

Myosotis ''Myosotis'' ( ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae. The name comes from the Ancient Greek "mouse's ear", which the foliage is thought to resemble. In the northern hemisphere they are colloquially known as forget-me-nots ...

'' within the

Boraginaceae Boraginaceae, the borage or forget-me-not family, includes about 2,000 species of shrubs, trees and herbs in 146, to 156 genera with a worldwide distribution. The APG IV system from 2016 classifies the Boraginaceae as single family of the order ...

as well as mosses and lichens (especially ''Caloplaca''). Wade conducted field courses about lichens for the

Field Studies Council Field Studies Council is an educational charity based in the UK, which offers opportunities for people to learn about and engage with the outdoors. History It was established as the Council for the Promotion of Field Studies in 1943 with the ...

. In 1958, when the

was founded, Wade became its honorary secretary until 1963. After moving to New Zealand in the 1980s he started a collection of local lichens.

Publications

* A. Wade 1919 The flora of Aylestone and Narborough Bogs ''Trans. Leicester Lit. Phil. Soc.'' 20 20–46 * H. A. Hyde and A. Wade 1934 ''Welsh Flowering Plants'' * H. A. Hyde and A. Wade 1936 ''Lichens of Glamorgan'' * H. A. Hyde and A. Wade 1940 ''Welsh Ferns'' * A. Wade 1954 ''Lichens of Pembrokeshire'' * A. Wade 1958 ''Lichens of Carmarthenshire'' * A. Wade 1970 ''Flora of Monmouth'' * Arthur E. Wade, Quentin O. N. Kay and R. Gwynne Ellis 1990 ''Flora of Glamorgan'' completed and published posthumously Collema to the first issue, following it up in succeeding years with papers on ''The Lichenologist'' Alectoria (1959), Anaptychia and Physcia (1960) and Ramalina (1961).

Awards and honours

In 1925 he was elected a fellow of the

Linnean Society of London 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 1955 to 1956 Wade was president of the Cardiff Naturalists' Society. In 1958 he was awarded an honorary M.Sc. for his services to botany by the

University of Wales The University of Wales (Welsh language, Welsh: ''Prifysgol Cymru'') is a confederal university based in Cardiff, Wales. Founded by royal charter in 1893 as a federal university with three constituent colleges – Aberystwyth, Bangor and Cardiff � ...

. In 1962 he was made an honorary member of the Botanical Society of the British Isles in 1962, and he was president from 1964 to 1965. In 1971 Wade became the first Honorary member of the British Lichen Society. The lichen genus ''Wadeana'' is named after him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wade, Edward Arthur 1895 births 1989 deaths 20th-century botanists Lichenologists Fellows of the Linnean Society of London People from Leicester