Edgar Wolston Bertram Handsley Milne-Redhead (1906-1996) was a British botanist. He was born in Frome,

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, UK. Educated at

Cheltenham College ("Work Conquers All") , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent School Day and Boarding School , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Nicola Huggett ...

and

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...

, he began work at the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,100 ...

in 1928. In 1930, he accepted an offer to work in the Colonial Office in

Northern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in southern Africa, south central Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by Amalgamation (politics), amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-West ...

(now

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...

), where he collected plants for

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 ...

specimens. He was based at Matonchi Farm, west of

Mwinilunga Mwinilunga is a town in the North-Western Province of Zambia. It is the headquarters of Mwinilunga District, one of the province's eleven districts. Location The town lies on the west bank of the ''West Lunga River'', along the Chingola–Solw ...

, North-Western Province, Zambia, near the borders of

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

and the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

for 4½ months. He also collected extensively near

Kalene Hill Kalene Hill is a community in the northwest of Zambia near a hill by the same name about to the southeast. It is part of the Ikelenge District. Kalene Hill was the site of an early medical mission. The hospital is still important to the region. L ...

. He discovered many new

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

, and several were named after him, including ''Commelina milne-redheadii'' Faden ( Commelinaceae). In 1933, he married Olive Shaw, with whom he had one daughter. In 1949, he and others began the process to establish an “Association pour l’Etude Taxonomique de la Flore d’Afrique Tropicale” (or “

Association for the Taxonomic Study of the Flora of Tropical Africa The Association pour l’Etude Taxonomique de la Flore d’Afrique Tropicale (AETFAT) is a scientific association for the study of the flora of Tropical Africa. Other names for the organization are the ''Association for the Taxonomic Study of the ...

”) (AETFAT). He prepared treatments for the ''

Flora of Tropical East Africa The ''Flora of Tropical East Africa'' (FTEA) is a catalogue of all 12,104 known wild plant species in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. The project began in 1948 and was finally completed in September 2012. Approximately 1,500 new plant species were des ...

'' and eventually published 161 new names. Returning to the U.K., he was appointed Deputy Keeper of the Herbarium and Library at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and editor of '' Kew Bulletin'', serving from 1959 until 1971. He became president of the Botanical Society of the British Isles, now the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, in 1969. His last campaign at Kew was an effort to set up a Conservation Unit, which occurred in 1972. He died in 1996 in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Milne-Redhead, Edgar People from Frome British botanists 1906 births 1996 deaths