Henry Doubleday (1810-1902) was an English scientist and

horticulturist 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 ...

Coggeshall Coggeshall ( or ) is a small town in Essex, England, between Colchester and Braintree on the Roman road Stane Street and the River Blackwater. It has almost 300 listed buildings and a market whose charter was granted in 1256 by Henry III. ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. __NOTOC__ Henry Doubleday was the son of William Doubleday and his wife Hannah Corder. His father was a shopkeeper in

; the family were all

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

s. He lived at the same time as his cousin

Henry Doubleday (1808-1875) Henry Doubleday (1 July 1808 – 29 June 1875) was an English entomologist and ornithologist. Henry Doubleday was the eldest son of Quaker and grocer Benjamin Doubleday and his wife Mary of Epping, Essex. He and his brother Edward Double ...

the

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

and

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

. Doubleday had a wide range of interests, in 1851 he won a bronze medal for

lace Lace is a delicate fabric made of yarn or thread in an open weblike pattern, made by machine or by hand. Generally, lace is divided into two main categories, needlelace and bobbin lace, although there are other types of lace, such as knitted o ...

designs made in Coggeshall and shown at the

Great Exhibition The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary The Crystal Palace, structure in which it was held), was an International Exhib ...

. He gained the contract with

De La Rue De La Rue plc (, ) is a British company headquartered in Basingstoke, England, that designs and produces banknotes, secure polymer substrate and banknote security features (including security holograms, security threads and security printe ...

for the supply of

gum arabic Gum arabic, also known as gum sudani, acacia gum, Arabic gum, gum acacia, acacia, Senegal gum, Indian gum, and by other names, is a natural gum originally consisting of the hardened sap of two species of the '' Acacia'' tree, ''Senegalia sen ...

for

postage stamps A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the fa ...

. Gum arabic is made from imported extracts from the

acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus na ...

tree: in his efforts to find a suitable material which could be grown in England he experimented with imported varieties of

comfrey ''Symphytum'' is a genus of flowering plants in the borage family, Boraginaceae, known by the common name comfrey (pronounced ). There are 59 recognized species.WFO (2022): Symphytum L. Published on the Internet; http://www.worldfloraonline.org/ ...

, though the gum produced proved to be unsuitable. The value of his work was recognised and he was elected a member 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 ...

, however his membership was never registered as he was unable to afford the fee. The full extent of his work may never be known, as his notes were burnt by his family after his death aged 92 in Coggeshall. The work was also recognised by

Lawrence D Hills Lawrence Donegan Hills (2 July 1911 – 20 September 1990) was a British horticulturalist and writer. In 1954, he founded the Henry Doubleday Research Association (HDRA; now Garden Organic) in Bocking, near Braintree, Essex. By the time he retir ...

, a

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 ...

who named the

Henry Doubleday Research Association Garden Organic, formerly known as the Henry Doubleday Research Association (HDRA), is a UK organic growing charity dedicated to researching and promoting organic gardening, farming and food. The charity maintains the Heritage Seed Library to pr ...

after him. The HDRA, now called Garden Organic, has since become the largest

organic gardening Organic horticulture is the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants by following the essential principles of organic agriculture in soil building and conservation, pest management, and heirloom variety preserva ...

and horticultural organisation in Europe.

References

External links

Garden Organic
- formerly the Henry Doubleday Research Association 1810 births 1902 deaths English scientists English horticulturists People educated at Ackworth School People from Coggeshall English Quakers 19th-century British scientists 19th-century English people {{horticulture-stub