Amongst all the hullaballoo surrounding the visit of HRH, Stalker noted an early fungus pioneer from Ireland get a wee mention.
The Queen was visiting Queens College Cork, whose archivist unearthed this noteworthy gent.
“Sir Edwin John Butler graduated from QCC with a degree in medicine in 1898. However, his interests lay in botanical research and he went on to study at London and Paris before travelling to India to take up the position of the first cryptogamic botanist to the government of India, later becoming imperial botanist. In 1920, he took up the directorship of the newly established Imperial Bureau of Mycology at Kew, which celebrated its centenary in 2010. In the archives there is material relating to Butler, as well as copies of pamphlets and articles he wrote. He was knighted in 1939.”
Stalker had never heard of the Imperial Bureau before – sounds quite science-fictionesque.
It’s a must see on the next trip to London, that’s for sure.
