HAROLD HENRY WELCH PEARSON, 1870-1916. 



The death of Prof. Pearson is not only a calamity from the point of 

 view of the welfare of South African Botany, both pure and applied, but it 

 also means the removal from the ranks of botanical investigators of an 

 exceptionally active worker and an original thinker, who combined in an 

 unusual degree the power of doing work with an intellectual equipment and 

 temperament which enabled him to do it well and thoroughly. Few men 

 have made better use of their opportunities or have done as much as he did 

 to advance botanical science in so short a period. It is not only as a 

 botanist that Pearson will be missed : he had many friends both in South 

 Africa and in England who appreciated his singularly attractive personality 

 and felt for him a deep affection. His wide interests, his passion for 

 grappling with botanical problems, and his love of Nature made him an 

 inspiring teacher and a successful lecturer. In South Africa he had friends 

 throughout the Union, men of all shades of political opinion and social 

 standing ; his honesty of purpose, his geniality, and devotion to duty enabled 

 him to win the affection of those with whom he was associated, and to 

 exert a wide influence not merely in scientific matters but in the affairs of 

 daily life. 



Harold Henry Welch Pearson was born at Long Sutton, in Lincolnshire, 

 on January 28, 1870, and died on November 3, 1916, at the Mount Royal 

 Hospital, Wynberg, Cape Town. After recovering from the effects of an 

 operation he contracted pneumonia, which was the actual cause of death. 

 He was privately educated ; after holding a teaching post at Eastbourne he 

 entered the University as a non-collegiate student in 1893. In October, 

 1896, he became a member of Christ's College, and in 1898, in consequence 

 of his election to a Frank Smart Studentship, he migrated to Gonville and 

 Caius College. His career at the University was a series of successes. As 

 an undergraduate he was a particularly alert student ; he had a keen sense 

 of humour and thoroughly enjoyed the best side of Cambridge life. As he 

 rapidly developed both intellectually and in his knowledge of men, he 

 retained his boyish enthusiasm and a disposition unspoilt by closer contact 

 with the world. 



Pearson was appointed Assistant Curator of the Cambridge Herbarium in 

 1898, and in 1899 he became a member of the staff of the Herbarium of the 

 Royal Gardens, Kew. In 1903 he entered upon his duties as Harry Bolus 

 Professor of Botany at the South African College, Cape Town. He was the 

 first occupant of the Chair, and it would be difficult to find a man as well 

 qualified as he proved himself to be to set a standard for succeeding 

 generations. Before leaving England he married the youngest daughter of 

 the late William Pratt, of Little Bradley, Suffolk ; his widow alone survives 



