David Henriques Valentine (16 February 1912 in Salford – 10 April 1987 in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

) was a British botanist and

plant taxonomist Plant taxonomy is the science that finds, identifies, describes, classifies, and names plants. It is one of the main branches of taxonomy (the science that finds, describes, classifies, and names living things). Plant taxonomy is closely allied ...

Early career

Valentine was born in

Higher Broughton Broughton is a suburb and district of Salford, City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, on the east bank of the River Irwell, it is northwest of Manchester and south of Prestwich. Historically in Lancashire, Broughton was a township ...

, Salford, 16 February 1912, elder child of Emmanuel Henriques Valentine and his wife Dora Deborah Valentine ''née'' Besso. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and then won a scholarship to

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

, where he gained a first class degree in

Natural Sciences 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 ...

. His

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

was in

plant physiology Plant physiology is a subdiscipline of botany concerned with the functioning, or physiology, of plants. Closely related fields include plant morphology (structure of plants), plant ecology (interactions with the environment), phytochemistry (bi ...

after which, in 1936, his interests shifted to

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

and he was appointed Curator of the Herbarium at the Botany School of the University. In 1938 he became a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of St. John's. He was a member of the ''Cambridge Scientists' Anti-War Group'' and was one of those who carried out experiments and, based on their outcome, published in 1937 a critical examination of the

Air Raid Precaution Air Raid Precautions (ARP) refers to a number of organisations and guidelines in the United Kingdom dedicated to the protection of civilians from the danger of air raids. Government consideration for air raid precautions increased in the 1920s an ...

schemes of the British Home Office. Their book was given a hostile review in ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

'' by retired general Charles Foulkes and Valentine was one of the signatories of a letter in reply. When the War began he was drafted into the Ministry of Food to work on the

dehydration In physiology, dehydration is a lack of total body water, with an accompanying disruption of metabolic processes. It occurs when free water loss exceeds free water intake, usually due to exercise, disease, or high environmental temperature. Mil ...

of vegetables (cabbage, carrot and potato) intended for consumption by the armed forces. The success in this work was described in 1943 in the British

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

, which also reported on a Dehydration Mission to the British Empire in Africa, a mission in which Valentine took part. At the end of the war he was the editor of a fuller report of the dehydration work.

Durham

In 1945 he was appointed as Head of the Department of Botany at the

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charte ...

, initially as

Reader A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to: Computing and technology * Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader * Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application * A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...

, then from 1950 as Professor. Starting from tiny beginnings he built up a flourishing department.BSBI Profile on D H Valentine's retirement
/ref> One of his more inspired choices was the appointment as lecturer of the then unknown David Bellamy Valentine's research interests became well established in experimental taxonomy, especially of

violets Violet identifies various plant taxa, particularly species in the genus ''Viola'', within which the common violet is the best known member in Eurasia and the common blue violet and common purple violet are the best known members in North America ...

and the British primulas. He contributed to the knowledge of the interspecific relationships and evolution within these groups, with useful discussions of more general taxonomic principles. His department's undergraduate courses had a large content of taxonomy, field botany and ecology, with regular field excursions. A favourite destination for these was

Upper Teesdale Upper Teesdale is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in the west County Durham, England. It encompasses an extensive upland area that includes the headwaters of the River Tees and the surrounding catchment area upstream of the village ...

, an area which Valentine knew well. He was active in the movement to mitigate the effects of the creation of the

Cow Green Reservoir Cow Green Reservoir is a long water reservoir forming part of the border between the historic counties of Westmorland and County Durham in northern England, built between 1967 and 1971 to supply the industries of Teesside. The reservoir acts ...

there. His interests were not confined to Northern England, however. He played a major rôle in the inception, development and subsequent successful conclusion of the Flora Europaea project, both as co-editor and co-author. In 1957 he had the opportunity to extend his research to the North American flora, spending a year as Visiting Professor at the

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (UdeM; ; translates to University of Montreal) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-de ...

working with Áskell Löve and others.

Manchester

In 1966 he was appointed as Harrison Professor of Botany in the

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 ...

. As well as research, teaching and administration he continued his vigorous participation in Flora Europaea. He organised an international conference of invited speakers on ''Taxonomy, Phytogeography and Evolution''. He became a member of the Council 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 ...

(1968–1971 and 1976–1980), President of the International Organization of Plant Biosystematists (from 1974), and President of the Botanical Society of the British Isles (1977 to 1979). In 1974 he was awarded the Helsinki University Medal. He retired in 1979.

Personal life

In March 1938 he married Joan Winifred Todd (twin sister of John W. Todd). They had five children. In retirement his health was not good and he died in Manchester on 10 April 1987.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Valentine, David Henriques English botanists English taxonomists 1912 births 1987 deaths Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Academics of Durham University Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge People educated at Manchester Grammar School People from Broughton, Greater Manchester 20th-century British botanists Presidents of the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland