John William Heslop-Harrison
John William Heslop - Harrison ( * 1881 in Birtley, County Tyne and Wear, † January 23, 1967 in Birtley ) was a British botanist and zoologist. It dealt mainly with the melanism in moths. His botanical abbreviation is Hesl. - Harr.
His father George Heslop Harrison was an apprentice, later foreman at the Birtley Iron Works. His mother, nee Hull was an avid gardener. He attended Bede College Model School in Durham, he was able to visit with a County Scholarship Rutherford College in Newcastle upon Tyne. He then became clerk in Newcastle. From 1900 he graduated at the Durham College of Science teacher training. Heslop - Harrison worked as a teacher in first in Gateshead, and from 1905 in Middlesbrough. In 1906 he married Christian Watson Henderson. Already in his time as a teacher, he has published in journals, particularly on the subject of genetics. In 1916 he received the M.Sc. the University of Durham, 1917, he was awarded his doctorate for D.Sc. 1917-1923 he was a lecturer at Armstrong College, University of Durham, Newcastle. In 1920 he became a lecturer in Zoology, 1926 Reader of Genetics and Professor of Botany in 1927. From 1940-1950 he was secretary of the Examination Committee of the University of Durham. In 1921 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, elected in 1928 to the Royal Society. After his retirement he worked from 1946-1949 Senior Research Fellow in Durham.
Heslop - Harrison was a respected botanist and at an advanced age, when he went with findings from previously suspect there is not known plant species on some islands of the Hebrides ( particularly rum) ( they were only found in a few places ). If they were authentic, it would have touched the question of whether the islands were glaciated in the last ice age. Heslop - Harrison took the discovery of Carex bicolor on rum as proof that the island was not icy. The amateur botanist, Cambridge professor and philologist John Earle Raven began to pursue the 1948 and produced a report in which he portrayed this as a scam. After Raven Heslop - Harrison had planted them at previous visits. The report was at the request of Raven secret, but was known under the hand of many botanists in the UK. The findings of Carex bicolor and Polycarpon tetraphyllum were redeemed from the British flora.
The journalist Karl Sabbagh wrote a book about the affair. Since the publication of his book Sabbagh could find more evidence that corroborated the suspicion of forgery. So he found in the archives of the Natural History Museum, whose curator that was so distressed for Botany George Taylor about the affair that he RB Cooke, a former colleague and friend of Heslop - Harrison, who accompanied him on many trips ( in particular the Hebrides ), 1981, a report requested. From this it appeared that Cooke himself believed to counterfeits. In the vicinity of the plant finds itself found evidence that the ground was not untouched .. Also some insects Heslop - Harrison on findings of rum have been doubted.
Heslop - Harrison's son Jack Heslop - Harrison was also a botanist and in 1970 director of the Royal Botanic Gardens ( Kew ). Its abbreviation is Hesl.-Harr.f.