Robert James Douglas Graham

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". ...

(1884–1950) was a Scottish botanist.

Life

He was born on 20 July 1884 in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, the son of Dr John Thomas Graham. His family lived at 4 Athole Crescent in Perth. He was educated at

Perth Academy Perth Academy is a state comprehensive secondary school in Perth, Scotland. It was founded in 1696. The institution is a non-denominational one. The school occupies ground on the side of a hill in the Viewlands area of Perth, and is within the P ...

then attended the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

, graduating with an MA in 1904. From 1910 to 1914 he served as economic botanist to the Indian Agricultural Service. In 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 served as a lieutenant colonel in the Indian Army Reserve. In 1919 and 1920 he was director of agriculture for

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

. In 1921 he went to 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 ...

as a lecturer in botany. In 1924 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, Frederick Orpen Bower, Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson and Robert Campbell. He served the society as secretary 1939 to 1944 and vice president 1944 to 1947. In 1934 he became professor of botany at the

. He died in

St Andrews St Andrews (; ; , pronounced ʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourth-largest settleme ...

on 3 September 1950.

Family

He was married to Johanna (Oona) M. Reid.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, Robert James Douglas 1884 births 1950 deaths People from Perth, Scotland 20th-century Scottish botanists Alumni of the University of St Andrews Academics of the University of St Andrews Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh