Charles Geddes Coull Chesters OBE

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

FLS (1904–1993) was a British

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

specialising in

fungi A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...

and

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

Life

He was born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

on 9 March 1904, the son of Charles Geddes Chesters, a commercial traveller, and Margaret Geddes. He attended Hyndland School in Glasgow. He was awarded a place at

Glasgow University The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in post-nominals; ) is a public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ...

in 1922 and graduated BSc in botany in 1926. His early interest lay in aquatic and salt-marsh vegetation. However, from 1931 he began to specialise in fungi, and founded the Research School in Phycomycetes (looking at fungi responsible for soil-born plant diseases) and Pyrenomycetes (wood- and bark-inhibiting fungi). At this time he was working with Walter Stiles FRS at

Birmingham University The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

. In 1937 he received a PhD for work in this field. In the war he served as an air raid warden. In 1944 he succeeded Thomas Bennet-Clark as professor of botany at Nottingham, holding this position for 25 years. He was also dean of faculty from 1945. He was elected a fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

in 1953. He retired in 1969 and moved to

Quenington Quenington is a nucleated village and larger rural civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England, on the River Coln east of Cirencester and north of Fairford. It had a recorded population of 603 at the 2011 census. Impo ...

, where his daughter already lived. In 1977 he received an OBE for services to education. He died at home on 13 February 1993 in

, near

Cirencester Cirencester ( , ; see #Pronunciation, below for more variations) is a market town and civil parish in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire, England. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames. It is the List of ...

Artistic recognition

A commemorative bust to Chesters stands in the Biology Building at the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

Publications

*''A Method of Isolating Soil Fungi'' (1940)

Other Positions Held

* President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science * Co-founder of the Institute of Biology

Family

He married Margaret Mercedes Cathie Maclean in 1928. They had a son, Charles and daughter Kathleen.

References

1904 births 1993 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh British mycologists Alumni of the University of Glasgow Scientists from Glasgow Officers_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire {{Scotland-botanist-stub