Jethro Justinian Harris Teall

[Roger Horton]

A search for Prof., Sir Jethro Justinian Harris Teall returns well over a hundred specimens mostly from the Dulwich College herbarium, a considerable number for one of the most eminent geologists of his time. Although knighted in 1916 for his contribution to the Geological Survey, I can find no evidence for his having held a chair at a university, so the title 'Professor' may be honorary.

Whoever wrote the labels for this herbarium had difficult handwriting to decipher especially in the frequently-used initials of collectors. This has led to much confusion over the identity of collectors. In particular the letter 'P' is easily confused with 'T', a situation exacerbated by the surnames of families frequently encountered being Perreau, Teesdale, and Teall. The larger number of Teall specimens may be a result of over-enthusiastic attribution of initials appearing something like J H T.

Although Teall lived in Dulwich and became a governor of the College where his sons (George Harris and Frederic Hathaway) were educated, examples of his full surname on labels extremely rare.

367947 William J H Teall 9/1903


351958 Jethro Justinian Harris Teall 9/1903


Few if any Dulwich collector initials are preceded by 'Mr'. Could these both be Mrs Teall?

Another Dulwich labels suggest the first letter above as 'M'. Here is Montia from Mitcham in May

[Chris Liffen]

Mrs Teall had an interest in some things botanical, and was known to the Teesdales.