OmTTTAniFS 
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OBITUARIES 
R. R. Hutchinson (1870-1951). — Robert Russell Hutchinson ivas born 
on August 28, 1870, and died on dime 12, 1951. He spent a lifetime 
in tlie service of the Westminster Bank, mainly at Tunbridge Wells and 
Wallingford. From his earliest days he showed a great interest in 
natural history of all kinds, particularly botany. He was a member of 
the B.8.B.I. from 1923 until his death. He was Secretary of the Tun- 
bridge Wells Natural History and Philosophical Society from 1899 to 
1909, and while at Wallingford he founded a small museum of which he 
acted as curator. On his retirement in 1933 he moved to Croydon where 
he founded another museum in connexion with a local church, and acted 
as Curator to the Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society. On 
his death he bequeathed his personal collections to that Society. 
Included in this was an extensive herbarium, which besides his own 
specimens comprised a collection of about 500 plants, in two bound 
volumes, by J. Breach, mainly from around Winchester about 1835; 
also the herbarium of an unidentified collector, “T. J. B.”, who was 
contemporary with Breach but apparently unconnected with him. 
“T. . B.” collected around London, but received a number of northern 
specimens from a Mr. Leyland, mainly from around Halifax. A few 
sheets collected by J. Smith and E. T. Bennett, also in the herbarium, 
probably came in as part of I. J. B.’s collection. Unfortunately, nearly 
half the specimens in the herbarium as a whole bore no collection data, 
and owing to lack of storage space at Croydon these have been given to 
King’s College, Newcastle, for teaching pur|)oses. The remainder — 
some 750 sheets as well as the Breach collection — have been incor- 
porated in the Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society’s 
lu'rbarium (see Watsonia 2, 100 (1951)). 
Personally, Hutchinson was the kindliest and most charming of men. 
All his life he was a keen supporter of the Church, and apart from his 
scientific interests he had an encyclopaedic knowledge of church history, 
ecclesiology, and liturgiology. 
C. T. Prime, D. P. Young. 
-Iamrs Gunson Lawn (1868-1952). — Professor J. G. Lawn, C.B.E., 
better known to members of this Society as Dr. Lawn, was for a time a 
familiar figure at our meetings. He was born at Dalton-in-Furness on 
June 4, 1868, and became an eminent Mining Engineer. He initiated 
the School of Mines on the Rand, the nucleus of what became the 
University of the Witwatersrand. He died at Eshowe, Zululand, on 
October 21, 1952, in his 84th year. Dr Lawn contributed a number of 
records to our Reports for 1933, 1934 and 1935 which include such 
claims as Filago galHca from Shalford Common, Surrey, and Ophrys 
(iranifera from Denbies, Dorking, Surrey. These have not been con- 
firmed . 
J. E. Lousley. 
