Claude Wilson Wardlaw (4 February 1901 – 16 December 1985) was a British

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

, who specialised in diseases of the

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...

.Claude Wardlaw Papers
at

University of Manchester Library The University of Manchester Library is the library system and information service of the University of Manchester. The main library is on the Oxford Road campus of the university, with its entrance on Burlington Street. There are also ten other ...

Early life and education

He was born in western central Scotland on 4 February 1901, the son of Major J. Wardlaw of the

Highland Light Infantry The Highland Light Infantry (HLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army formed in 1881. It took part in the First and Second World Wars, until it was amalgamated with the Royal Scots Fusiliers in 1959 to form the Royal Highland Fusi ...

. He was educated at

Paisley Grammar School Paisley Grammar School is a secondary school in Paisley, the largest town in Renfrewshire, Scotland. The school was founded in 1576 by royal charter of King James VI and is situated on Glasgow Road. The school is recognised as one of Scotland's ...

. He studied

Natural Science Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

s at

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

graduating BSc around 1920. He continued as a postgraduate gaining his doctorate PhD and then going to

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

in Canada to gain a second doctorate

DSc DSC may refer to: Academia * Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) * District Selection Committee, an entrance exam in India * Doctor of Surgical Chiropody, superseded in the 1960s by Doctor of Podiatric Medicine Educational institutions * Dalton State Col ...

Career and research

He then returned to Britain for final studies

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

, gaining an MSc. He began lecturing in botany at Glasgow University around 1927. In this year he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposers were

Frederick Orpen Bower Frederick Orpen Bower FRSE FRS (4 November 1855 – 11 April 1948) was an English botanist. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1891. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the Linnean Society in 1909 and the Darwin Medal of the Ro ...

, James Montagu Frank Drummond,

John Graham Kerr Sir John Graham Kerr (18 September 1869 – 21 April 1957), known to his friends as Graham Kerr, was a British embryologist and Unionist Member of Parliament (MP). He is best known for his studies of the embryology of lungfishes. He was involv ...

and

William Wright Smith Sir William Wright Smith FRS FRSE FLS VMH LLD (2 February 1875 Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire – 15 December 1956) was a Scottish botanist and horticulturalist. Life He was born at Parkend farm near Lochmaben in Dumfriesshire, the son of James ...

. His professional specialism in bananas began in 1928, when he was appointed Plant Pathologist for Banana Research at the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture in

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

. His focus was researching the Panama Disease that had affected plantations in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

. His book ''Green Havoc'' (1935) describes his investigations. In the same year, he published another book, ''Diseases of the Banana'', which was republished in an expanded edition as ''Banana Diseases'' in 1961 and 1972. While in Trinidad, Wardlaw was also involved with the work of the Low Temperature Research Station, where he was appointed officer-in-chief in 1933, as well as researching various tropical fruits of the region. In 1940, Wardlaw returned to Britain to serve as Professor of Cryptogamic Botany at the

. He held this position until 1958, when he became the George Harrison Professor of Botany, and later Emeritus Professor of Botany in 1966.

Publications

*''Green Havoc'' (1935) *''Diseases of the Banana'' (1935) *''Tropical Fruits and Vegetables: Storage and Transport'' (1937) *''Phylogeny and Morphogenesis'' (1952) *''Embryogenesis in Plants'' (1955) *''Banana Diseases'' (1961) *''Organisation and Evolution in Plants'' (1965) *''Morphogenesis in Plants: A Contemporary Study'' (1968) *''Essays on Form in Plants'' (1968) *''Cellular Differentiation in Plants, and Other Essays'' (1969)

Personal life

In 1928 Wardlaw married Jessie Connell (d.1971), with whom he had two sons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wardlaw, Claude Pomologists 1901 births 1985 deaths 20th-century Scottish botanists People educated at Paisley Grammar School Alumni of the University of Glasgow Academics of the University of Glasgow Academics of the University of Manchester Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 20th-century agronomists