Charles Edward Hubbard

From Wiki

Charles Edward Hubbard FLS (23/5/1900-8/5/1980)

Biography

The end-paper of "Grasses" written by Hubbard, and published in the Pelican series (Penguin Books, September 1954; 8s/6d) states:

"Charles Edward Hubbard was born at Appleton, Norfolk, in 1900. After intensive training in horticulture in the Royal Gardens, Sandringham, and Oslo, Norway, and after serving in the Royal Air Force, he entered the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in 1920. He became keenly interested in the large collection of living plants for which Kew is world-renowned. This interest led to his transference to the Herbarium in 1922 where he assisted the distinguished botanists of that famous institution, gaining general experience in the classification and identification of flowering plants. Since 1926 he has specialized in the study of grasses. For many years he has been botanist in charge of the section devoted to these plants - the largest and most complete collection in the world. In 1930 he was sent to Australia to revise grass-collections in the Botanical Museum, Brisbane, and during extensive travels in Queensland he gathered 70,000 specimens for Kew. He has published numerous scientific works on grasses from all parts of the world, and is preparing accounts of them for the Floras of Tropical Africa and Tropical East Africa. In 1954 he was awarded the O.B.E."

In 1957 promoted to Keeper of the Herbarium and Library at Kew.
1959 Deputy Director.
1960 DSc honoris causa, University of Reading.
After death of his first wife in 1961 (Madeleine Grace Witham whom he had married in 1927) he married second cousin by marriage Florence Kate Hubbard in 1963.
1965 retired and moved to Hampton, Middlesex.
1965 CBE; 1967 Linnean Gold Medal; 1970 Veitch Memorial Medal.
Died 8 May 1980.