Robert Harold Compton (6 August 1886 in

Tewkesbury Tewkesbury ( ) is a medieval market town and civil parish in the north of Gloucestershire, England. The town has significant history in the Wars of the Roses and grew since the building of Tewkesbury Abbey. It stands at the confluence of the Ri ...

– 11 July 1979 in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

) was a South African botanist. The Compton Herbarium at

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden Kirstenbosch is an important botanical garden nestled at the eastern foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town. The garden is one of 10 National Botanical Gardens covering five of South Africa's six different biomes and administered by the South Af ...

, which he founded in Cape Town in 1939, was named in his honour.

Career

He attended

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

from 1905 to 1909, attaining a double first class and distinction and later an

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

He stayed on at Cambridge from 1911-13 as a Demonstrator in Botany, and joined a field expedition to New Caledonia in 1914, collecting extensively and discovering some new genera and species. While at Cambridge, his main publications were in the area of anatomy and morphology of Gymnosperms,

Pteridophytes A pteridophyte is a vascular plant (with xylem and phloem) that disperses spores. Because pteridophytes produce neither flowers nor seeds, they are sometimes referred to as "cryptogams", meaning that their means of reproduction is hidden. Ferns, ...

and Angiosperm seedlings. He enlisted for war service from 1915–18 and arrived in South Africa in March 1919 to become Director of th
National Botanic Gardens
at Kirstenbosch. At the same time he took up the chair of Harold Pearson Professor of Botany at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

- Harold Pearson was the first Director of Kirstenbosch. Robert Compton held these posts for the next 34 years. In South Africa his interests were confined to the

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. ...

of South African flora. Most of his publications in this field were in the ''Journal of South African Botany'', a journal which he started in 1935 and edited until his retirement. On retirement in 1953 he chose to settle in Swaziland and was commissioned by the Swazi Government to undertake a botanical survey of the country. The results first appeared as ''An Annotated Checklist of the Flora of Swaziland'' in Journal of South African Botany Suppl. 11 (1976)

Honours and awards

He was President of the SA Association for the Advancement of Science in 1957, receiving their medal and a grant. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of SA, an Hon. Fellow of the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nor ...

and medallist, twice President of the SA Museums Association, and received an honorary D.Sc. from the University of Cape Town in 1968. He is commemorated in ''Comptonella'' Bak.f., ''Comptonanthus'' B. Nord, and numerous species names. Most of his New Caledonia specimens are with the British Museum, and his vast South African collection (over 35 000 specimens) is spread between the various herbaria in South Africa.

Publications

* with

Elsie Garrett Rice Elsie Garrett Rice (25 November 1869 Elton, Derbyshire - 27 April 1959 Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legis ...

* *' *''Our South African flora'' (Cape Times, Cape Town 1930s)

References

*Rourke in ''Forum Botanicum'' 14:57 (1976) *Rycroft in ''Veld & Flora'' 65: 74-75 (1979)

External links

SANBI

{{DEFAULTSORT:Compton, Robert Harold 20th-century South African botanists South African taxonomists University of Cape Town academics 1886 births 1979 deaths British emigrants to South Africa Presidents of the Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science

Career

Honours and awards

Publications

See also

References

External links