Thomas Hanbury
Sir Thomas Hanbury ( born June 21, 1832 in Clapham in London, † March 9, 1907 in Mortola Inferiore at Ventimiglia ) was a British merchant, who was mainly known for its botanical garden Hanbury Botanical Gardens in Ventimiglia.
Life and work
Thomas Hanbury was the third son of the seven children of Daniel Bell Hanbury (1794-1882) and Rachel Christy. The British botanist and pharmacologist Daniel Hanbury (1825-1875) was one of his brothers. With nine he attended a school in Croydon. He then continued his education in Epping, where most of the boys from families of the Society of Friends came from. After leaving school, Hanbury received some time teaching by a private tutor. At age 17, he began training at a Teehandelsfirma in London Mincing Lane.
At age 21, Hanbury began to work for the company Hanbury & Company in Shanghai together with his cousin Thomas Christy. Almost 20 years, from 1853 to 1872, he was, from 1858 to 1859 and from 1866 to 1868, worked with the exception of two visits to Europe as a trader in Shanghai. He worked for the City Council, and sat down in spite of the caused by the Taiping Rebellion difficult conditions for the interests of the local merchants a.
During his stay in March 1867 French Menton Hanbury made an excursion to nearby just across the Italian border Cape La Mortola, in which he discovered dating from the 11th century, dilapidated Palazzo Orengo. Impressed by the landscape position he acquired in May 1867 the palace as well as some adjacent land. The place was to be his retirement home, around which he wanted to create with the help of his brother Daniel a botanical garden. In March 1868, he married Katherine Aldham Pease, the eldest daughter of Thomas Pease from Westbury-on -Trym, near Bristol, with whom he had three children, Danny, Cecil and Horace. After returning from China, the couple spent the winter months in the Palazzo Orengo and the summer months in England or the Maritime Alps in Switzerland.
On 5 December 1878 he was admitted to the Linnean Society of London. 1889 was one of Gustav Cronemeyer in his catalog of the Botanical Gardens Hanbury about 3600 different species.
Since education in his new adopted home Liguria were somewhat backward, Hanbury was built in 1880 a joint school for boys and girls of the villages of La Mortola, Ciotti and Grimaldi. 1892 was followed by another school for the children of the lath Valley. In Genoa he taught later Botanical Institute at the University of Genoa. For the forgotten and dilapidated library of Aprosio Angelico (1607-1681) was Hanbury in 1897 to build a new library building, today's Biblioteca Civica Aprosiana. He also founded the Musee de Prehistoire Regional Menton.
After the death of George Fergusson Wilson (1822-1902) Hanbury acquired of 1903, the Oakwood Experimental Garden and the adjoining Glebe Farm in Wisley. The site of today's Royal Horticultural Society Garden, Wisley, he handed over to the trusteeship of the Royal Horticultural Society. The Herbarsammlung and book collection of his brother Daniel, he donated the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.
Honors
Thomas Hanbury was Commander of the Equestrian Order of hl. Mauritius and Lazarus and 1888 the Order of the Crown of Italy. In 1901 he was defeated as a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order to Knight and was allowed to wear the title of Sir.
Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1893 honored him with the 119th volume of the Botanical Magazine. Several plant species have been named after Thomas Hanbury, including the now out as synonyms species of Aloe Aloe hanburiana Naudin (1875 ) and Aloe hanburyi Borzi (1903 ).
In Shanghai, Hanbury Road and the Kungping Road are named after Thomas Hanbury.