Grenville 'Gren' Llewellyn Lucas (20 December 1935 – 12 December 2022) was a British botanist, conservationist, and Keeper of the

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 ...

and Library at

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

Biography

Grenville Llewellyn Lucas was born in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

on 20 December 1935. He had an early interest in natural history stimulated by the

National Museum of Wales National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

but his first job was working for the

Distillers Company The Distillers Company Limited was a leading Scottish drinks and pharmaceutical company and, at one time, a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It was taken over by Guinness & Co. (now part of Diageo) in 1986 in a transaction which was later ...

on the development and use of plastics and resins. After reading ''The Geography of the Flowering Plants'' by

Ronald Good Ronald D'Oyley Good (5 March 1896 – 11 December 1992) was a British Botany, botanist notable for his Phytochorion, floristic regionalization. Good was born in Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester. He studied botany at Downing College, Cambridge, ...

his interest took him to the

University of Hull The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hull ...

to study botany under Professor Good, where he received a degree in Botany. Gren worked at Kew as a research student for the

Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of c ...

before taking up a post as Scientific Officer in the East African Herbarium in

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

. While in Nairobi he became interested in conservation work. In 1962 he returned to Kew to work on the Flora of Tropical East Africa. He and his wife were both supporters of the Surrey Naturalists' Trust. In 1974 he created the Kew Conservation Unit, which included work on

CITES CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of interna ...

for the UK Government and setting up of the I.U.C.N. Threatened Plant Committee Secretariat that became integrated into the

World Conservation Monitoring Centre The UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) is a collaboration centre of UN Environment Programme, based in Cambridge in the United Kingdom. UNEP-WCMC has been part of UN Environment Programme since 2000, and has ...

. The International Plant Red Data Book published in 1979 co-edited with

Hugh Synge Hugh Synge (1951-2018) was an English botanist of Anglo-Irish descent who championed endangered plants. In 2007, he was voted one of the 20 most influential British conservationists by ''BBC Wildlife'' readers. Synge attended Rugby School, which ...

was one of the products of this work. He was a Trustee (1979–1990) of WWF (U.K.) and Council Member (1978–1990) of I.U.C.N. He served as Chairman of the Species Survival Commission of the I.U.C.N. for eight years. He was treasurer 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 ...

for 20 years. In 1998 he was appointed to the Council of

English Nature English Nature was the United Kingdom government agency that promoted the conservation of wildlife, geology and wild places throughout England between 1990 and 2006. It was a non-departmental public body funded by the Department for Environmen ...

. He was promoted to Senior Principal Scientific Officer and in 1989 appointed the Keeper of the Herbarium and Library at Kew and Deputy Director; he retired in 1995. After retirement he remained at Kew for a year as head of the Information Services Department. Gren met his wife Shirley while at University and they were married while in Nairobi. Gren Lucas died on 12 December 2022.

Honours

He was awarded an

O.B.E. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

for services to Conservation in the

1980 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours 1980 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The appointments were made to celebrate ...

. In 1986 he received the award of Officer of the

Order of the Golden Ark The Most Excellent Order of the Golden Ark ( nl, Orde van de Gouden Ark) is a Dutch order of merit established in 1971 by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. It is awarded to people for major contributions to nature conservation. Although not ...

from

Prince Bernhard , house = Lippe , father = Prince Bernhard of Lippe , mother = Armgard von Cramm , birth_date = , birth_name = Count Bernhard of Biesterfeld , birth_place = Jena, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Germany , death_date = ...

. In 1987 he received the Bruno H. Schubert Prize, awarded by the Frankfurt-based Bruno H. Schubert Foundation to individuals for their exceptional commitment to preserving the biological diversity of our planet. In 1989 he was made Visiting

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

in the Department of Botany at

Reading University The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

. He was also awarded a medal in 1990 by the South African Association of Botanists (S.A.A.B.) for his contribution to African botany. In 1991 he was awarded the Sir

Peter Scott Sir Peter Markham Scott, (14 September 1909 – 29 August 1989) was a British ornithologist, conservationist, painter, naval officer, broadcaster and sportsman. The only child of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott, he took an interest i ...

Merit Award Medal by the

Species Survival Commission The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

in Australia for his work on "the survival of species of fauna and flora throughout the world." In 1997 he was awarded the Royal Geographical Society

Busk Medal The Busk Medal is an award given annually by the Royal Geographical Society, for "conservation research or for fieldwork abroad in geography or in a geographical aspect of an allied science". It was first awarded in 1975, and is named in honour ...

. He was awarded the

Linnean Gold Medal The Linnean Gold Medal is a medal awarded by the Linnean Society of London in "special circumstances" for "services to the Society". As the society's highest honour it has, to date, only been awarded three times. Gold Medallists * Doris Kermack ...

in 2007.

Selected publications

* Conservation of Threatened Plants. (1976). J B Simmons; R I Beyer; P E Brandham; G Ll Lucas; V T H Parry. Boston, MA : Springer US * List of rare, threatened & endemic plants for the countries of Europe. (1976). Lucas, Gren; Walters, S.M. Kew : Royal Botanic Gardens * The IUCN Threatened Plants Committee and Its Work Throughout the World. (1977). Lucas, Grenville Ll., and A. H. M. Synge. Environmental Conservation, vol. 4(3):179–187. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44516713. * The IUCN Plant Red Data Book. (1978). Editors: Gren Lucas, Hugh Synge. IUCN.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lucas, Grenville Llewellyn 1935 births 2022 deaths Botanists with author abbreviations British botanists Scientists from Cardiff Alumni of the University of Hull Botanists active in Kew Gardens British conservationists Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Officers of the Order of the British Empire