James Edward Tierney Aitchison MD LLD CIE (28 October 1835 – 30 September 1898) was a Scottish surgeon and botanist. He worked as British Commissioner to Ladakh, India in 1872 and collected numerous specimens from the region and published catalogues of plants including those of economic interest. The plant genus '' Aitchisonia'' was named after him by

Helmsley Helmsley is a market town and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, the town is located at the point where Ryedale leaves the moorland and joins the flat Vale of ...

but the name is no longer in use. In authorship he is normally known as J. E. T. Aitchison.

Life

Aitchison was born in

Neemuch Neemuch or Nimach is a town in the malwa region. Neemuch crowns the north western part of MP. It has been also referred to city of Nature and Peace. The town shares its northwestern border with the state of Rajasthan and is the administrati ...

in central

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

the second son of Major James Aitchison of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

of Scotland. His mother Mary Turner was the sister of John William Turner and through her he took an interest in plants at an early age. The family returned to Scotland where he was educated at Lasswade Parish School, Dalkeith Grammar School and the

Edinburgh Academy The Edinburgh Academy is an independent day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, which was opened in 1824. The original building, on Henderson Row in the city's New Town, is now part of the Senior School. The Junior School is located on Arboretum Ro ...

. From 1853 his mother was living as a widow at 67 Great King Street, a huge Georgian townhouse in Edinburgh's Second New Town. James obtained his doctorate in medicine at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

in 1858, presenting his thesis '''Emphysema, one of the complications of parturition and then entered the Bengal Medical Service. He worked as a civil surgeon at Amritsar, where he also helped establish a school. He suffered from a liver ailment and returned to England during which time he worked on a catalogue of the plants of Punjab and Sindh in 1869. In 1872 he was appointed Commissioner to Ladakh. He collected nearly 10000 specimens of 950 species of plant during his service in the 29th Punjab Regiment under Lord Roberts in the Kuram valley. In 1884 he was naturalist with the Afghan Boundary Commission, and on this expedition too he collected nearly 10000 specimens of 800 species. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1881 and a Fellow of the

Royal Society of London The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1883, and a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1863. In 1883 he was created a Commander of the

Order of the Indian Empire The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria on 1 January 1878. The Order includes members of three classes: #Knight Grand Commander (GCIE) #Knight Commander ( KCIE) #Companion ( CIE) No appoi ...

(CIE). His

herbaria 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 ...

are preserved in 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 1,10 ...

, and

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

. He married Eleanor Carmichael, second daughter of Robert Craig, Esq., of Craigesk, in 1862. He stood as the

Liberal Unionist The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington (later the Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain, the party established a politic ...

candidate for Clackmannanshire and Kinross-shire in the 1892 General Election.

Botanical references

Works

''A catalogue of the plants of the Punjab and Sindh''
(1869)
''The zoology of the Afghan Delimitation Commission''
(1888)

References

External links

Plant collector information

Aitchison and Asia in the Directors' Correspondence by Katherine Harrington
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aitchison, James Edward Tierney 1835 births 1898 deaths 19th-century Scottish people People from Midlothian People from Neemuch Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Medical School Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society Scottish botanists Scottish naturalists Scottish colonial officials Scottish surgeons Fellows of the Linnean Society of London 19th-century Scottish medical doctors Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Liberal Unionist Party parliamentary candidates