Peter Hadland Davis FLS,

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". ...

(18 June 1918 – 5 March 1992) was a British botanist.

Life

Davis was born on 18 June 1918 in

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the North Somerset unitary district, in the county of Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. Its population ...

.obituary from University of Reading
/ref> Initially he was educated at the Nash House,

Burnham-on-Sea Burnham-on-Sea is a seaside town in Somerset, England, at the mouth of the River Parrett, upon Bridgwater Bay. Burnham was a small fishing village until the late 18th century when it began to grow because of its popularity as a seaside resort. ...

and then continued his education at

Bradfield College Bradfield College is a coeducational public school (independent boarding and day school) for pupils aged 13–18, in the village of Bradfield, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It is noted for its open-air Greek theatre and its trien ...

and later in Maiden Erlegh near

Reading, Berkshire Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, England, and the county town of Berkshire. It is the United Kingdom's largest town, with a combined population of 355,596. Most of Reading built-up area, its built-up area lies within the Borough ...

. In 1937 he began training at Ingwersen's Alpine Plant Nursery in

East Grinstead East Grinstead () is a town in West Sussex, England, near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders, south of London, northeast of Brighton, and northeast of the county town of Chichester. Situated in the northeast corner of the county, bord ...

and became interested in botany.The Royal Society of Edinburgh: P. H. Davis obituary
/ref> In 1938 he began his first botanical expedition, albeit as an amateur on his own initiative. He visited the Middle East and Turkey, but had to break off his trip in 1939 at the beginning of World War II. He was called up into the army and served until 1945. The last two years of his time in the army he spent time in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

. Immediately after he was demobbed, Davis moved to Scotland to study botany and biology at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

. In 1950 he began the research project that eventually became the ''Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands''. In 1952 he received his PhD on ''Taxonomy of Middle East flora''. In the 1950s, Davis made many overseas trips, collecting plants in Kurdistan, Russia and the Middle East. In 1959 he was honoured with the Cuthbert Peek Award of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

for his expedition to Kurdistan. In 1955 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 ...

. His proposers were Sir

William Wright Smith Sir William Wright Smith (2 February 1875 Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire – 15 December 1956) was a Scottish botanist and horticulturalist. Life He was born at Parkend farm near Lochmaben in Dumfriesshire, the son of James T. Smith, a farmer. He was ...

, Alexander Nelson, John Anthony and Brian Burtt. From 1961 he intensified his efforts to complete the ''Flora of Turkey'', which was finally completed in 1985. In 1963 he obtained a D.Sc. qualification from the

, presenting the thesis ''"Contributions to the flora of Turkey"''. He was invited to serve as regional adviser for Turkey on the

Flora Europaea The ''Flora Europaea'' is a 5-volume encyclopedia of plants, published between 1964 and 1993 by Cambridge University Press. The aim was to describe all the national Floras of Europe in a single, authoritative publication to help readers identify ...

project. He was awarded the ''Symposium Medal'' during the ''International Symposium on the Problems of Balkan Flora and Vegetation'', and was honoured by the Turkish government for his outstanding achievements in science. He later received the

Gold Medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

of the

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript a ...

for his commitment to the

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a scientific centre for the study of plants, their diversity and conservation, as well as a popular tourist attraction. Founded in 1670 as a physic garden to grow medicinal plants, today it occupies ...

. In the 1980s, he was awarded the ''Neill Medal'' of the

for his contributions to plant taxonomy. Peter was not only a plant collector but a collector of pottery and modern art. He had a notable collection of Wemyss Ware, a handpainted earthenware made in Kirkcaldy from 1830-1930. In 1986 he jointly published an illustrated work which detailed the history of the pottery and its artists: ''Wemyss Ware: A Decorative Scottish Pottery''. He died in Edinburgh, 5 March 1992. Under the terms of his will he endowed the ''Davis Expedition Fund'', to assist Edinburgh students to undertake biological fieldwork abroad, as he had done.Davis Expedition Fund
/ref> The plant

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

Biarum davisii ''Biarum'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae. It is composed of plants that are native to the Middle East, southern Europe (Spain, Portugal, Italy, Balkans), and North Africa. ''Biarum'' are often found growing in rock crevic ...

'', ''

Symphytum davisii ''Symphytum'' is a genus of flowering plants in the borage family, Boraginaceae, known by the common name comfrey (pronounced , from the Latin confervere to 'heal' or literally to 'boil together', referring to uses in ancient traditional medicin ...

'', '' Atriplex davisii'', '' Vicia davisii'', '' Fritillaria davisii'', '' Digitalis davisiana'', '' Papaver davisii'' and '' Alopecurus davisii'' are named after him.

Selected works

* (ten volumes) * * * *Peter H. Davis; R. Rankine (1986). ''Wemyss Ware: A Decorative Scottish Pottery.'' Scottish Academic Press.

Life

Selected works

References

Further reading