Frederick Tom Brooks

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

FRS (17 December 1882 – 11 March 1952) was an English

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 ...

and Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge.

Life

Brooks was born in

Wells, Somerset Wells () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Somerset, located on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills, south-east of Weston-super-Mare, south-west of Bath, Somerset, Bath a ...

the son of Edward Brooks and attended Sexey's School, Somerset from 1895 to 1898. He then attended Merrywood Teacher Training College in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

. He went up to

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mo ...

in 1902. Emily and Frederick Brooks at a British Mycological Society meeting in 1913 In 1907, he married Emily Broderick. They had no children. From 1905 to 1917, he held the role of demonstrator in the botany department. During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, he had the role of plant pathologist in the Department of Food Production. From 1919 to 1931, he was a lecturer at Cambridge and from 1931 to 1936 a reader. He became Professor of Botany at Cambridge in 1936. He specialised in

mycology Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungus, fungi, including their Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, genetics, biochemistry, biochemical properties, and ethnomycology, use by humans. Fungi can be a source of tinder, Edible ...

and investigated, amongst other things, silver-leaf disease of fruit trees. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1930 and an Honorary 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 1946. He was president of the Cambridge Philosophical Society from 1945 to 1947. He died in Cambridge aged 70. In 1956, Clifford Gerald Hansford

circumscribed In geometry, a circumscribed circle for a set of points is a circle passing through each of them. Such a circle is said to ''circumscribe'' the points or a polygon formed from them; such a polygon is said to be ''inscribed'' in the circle. * Circum ...

the genus ''

Brooksia ''Brooksia'' is a genus of fungus, fungi in the class Dothideomycetes. The relationship of this taxon to other taxa within the class is unknown (''incertae sedis''). The genus name of ''Brooksia'' is in honour of Frederick Tom Brooks (1882 – ...

'', a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

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 ...

in the class

Dothideomycetes Dothideomycetes is the largest and most diverse class of ascomycete fungi. It comprises 11 orders 90 families, 1,300 genera and over 19,000 known species. Wijayawardene et al. in 2020 added more orders to the class. Traditionally, most of it ...

and named in Frederick Tom Brooks honour.

Publications

''Plant Diseases''
(1928)

Botanical reference

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, Frederick Tom 1882 births 1952 deaths People from Somerset Fellows of the Royal Society Honorary Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge English botanists Professors of Botany (Cambridge) English mycologists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Sexey's School Presidents of the Cambridge Philosophical Society