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Sir Ronald George Hatton, (6 July 1886 – 11 November 1965) was a British
horticulturalist
Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...
and
pomologist
Pomology (from Latin , “fruit,” + ) is a branch of botany that studies fruit and its cultivation. The term fruticulture—introduced from Romance languages (all of whose incarnations of the term descend from Latin and )—is also used.
Pomol ...
.
Life
Hatton was born in
Kilburn, London
Kilburn is an area of north west London, England, which spans the boundary of three London Boroughs: London Borough of Camden, Camden to the east, City of Westminster, London Borough of Brent, Brent to the west. There is also an area in the City ...
.
[''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915''] His father Ernest Hatton was a
barrister
A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...
, and his maternal grandfather William Pearson a
KC; his mother Amy was the sister of the
biometrician
Biostatistics (also known as biometry) are the development and application of statistical methods to a wide range of topics in biology. It encompasses the design of biological experiments, the collection and analysis of data from those experimen ...
Karl Pearson
Karl Pearson (; born Carl Pearson; 27 March 1857 – 27 April 1936) was an English mathematician and biostatistician. He has been credited with establishing the discipline of mathematical statistics. He founded the world's first university st ...
. Hatton attended
Brighton College
Brighton College is an independent, co-educational boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 3 to 18 in Brighton, England. The school has three sites: Brighton College (the senior school, ages 11 to 18); Brighton College Preparatory Sc ...
and later
Exeter School
Exeter School is an independent co-educational day school for pupils between the ages of 7 and 18 in Exeter, Devon, England. In 2019, there were around 200 pupils in the Junior School and 700 in the Senior School.
History
The School traces its ...
, and in 1906 went up to
Balliol College
Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...
, Oxford, to read history; he took a
fourth in 1910, and his
BA in 1912. He went to work as a farm labourer, and in 1913 published a book, ''Folk of the Furrow'', written under the
pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
"Christopher Holdenby". From 1912 he studied agriculture at the
South-Eastern Agricultural College at
Wye in
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
. In 1914 the Fruit Experimental Station of the college became the
East Malling Research Station
NIAB EMR is a horticultural and agricultural research institute at East Malling, Kent in England, with a specialism in fruit and clonally propagated crop production. In 2016, the institute became part of the National Institute of Agricultural ...
; when the director left for the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Hatton became acting director. He was made director in 1918.
In 1914 Hatton married Hannah Rachel Rigden, who was from
Ashford. In 1922 they had a son, Christopher, who became a monk.
Hatton retired from the East Malling centre in 1949. He died on 11 November 1965 at his home in
Benenden
Benenden is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. The parish is located on the Weald, to the west of Tenterden. In addition to the main village, Iden Green, East End, Dingleden and Standen Street settlem ...
, in Kent. He was buried in the churchyard at East Malling, not far from the research station estate.
Work
Hatton was director at East Malling for thirty years. During that time he greatly expanded both its size and its range of activities. His principal achievement was the rationalisation, standardisation and classification of
rootstock
A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted. It can refer to a ...
s for fruit trees. His work led to the establishment first of the
Malling series
The Malling series is a group of rootstocks for grafting apple trees. It was developed at the East Malling Research Station of the South-Eastern Agricultural College at Wye in Kent, England. From about 1912, Ronald Hatton and his colleagues ...
, and later, in collaboration with the
John Innes Horticultural Institution
The John Innes Centre (JIC), located in Norwich, Norfolk, England, is an independent centre for research and training in plant and microbial science founded in 1910. It is a registered charity (No 223852) grant-aided by the Biotechnology and B ...
, of the Malling-Merton rootstocks for apples.
Recognition
Hatton received the
Victoria Medal 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 (Nort ...
in 1930. He was made a
CBE
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 ...
in 1934, was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
in 1944, and was
knighted
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...
in 1949.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hatton, Ronald
1886 births
1965 deaths
People educated at Exeter School
English botanists
English horticulturists
Pomologists
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Knights Bachelor
Fellows of the Royal Society
People from Kilburn, London
People from Benenden
Alumni of Wye College
Academics of Wye College