William Henry Griffin

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William Henry Griffin (1841-1921)

Biography

Before 1900 Griffin wrote weekly articles on natural history for a Kentish newspaper, many of which described the flora of West Kent and East Surrey. On this account, in that year Allan Octavian Hume contacted Griffin, who at the time was "engaged in business in the City of London", and offered to reimburse traveling and incidental expenses if he would collect specimens of the more valuable species he could find and send them to Cornwall where Hume was to spend the summer. He devoted his Saturday afternoons and Sundays to this (it can be seen in h@h data that >90% of the collections where at weekends or Bank Holidays!) In Spring 1901 Hume engaged Griffin as botanical assistant, a task he was to continue until after Hume's death, on 31st July 1912.

In an appreciation "Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; father of the Indian National Congress, 1829 to 1912", page 114 Griffin writes "In the same month [April 1901] I also accompanied him to Saffron Walden, in Essex, to collect specimens of Primula elatior." That day must have been Monday 22nd, because we have two specimens of what they collected: sheets 355715 and 353725!