Joseph Dalton Hooker
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Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM GCSI CB PRS |
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Hooker in 1897
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| Born |
30 June 1817 Halesworth, Suffolk, England |
| Died | 10 December 1911 (aged 94) Sunningdale, Berkshire, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Fields | Botany |
| Institutions | Kew Gardens |
| Alma mater | Glasgow University (M.D., 1839) |
| Influences | William Jackson Hooker; Charles Darwin; George Bentham |
| Influenced | William Thiselton-Dyer |
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Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM GCSI CB PRS (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, succeeding his father, William Jackson Hooker, and was awarded the highest honours of British science.
Hooker was born in Halesworth, Suffolk, England. He was the second son of the famous botanist Sir William Jackson Hooker, Regius Professor of Botany, and Maria Sarah Turner, eldest daughter of the banker Dawson Turner and sister-in-law of Francis Palgrave. From age seven, Hooker attended his father's lectures at Glasgow University, taking an early interest in plant distribution and the voyages of explorers like Captain James Cook. He was educated at the Glasgow High School and went on to study medicine at Glasgow University, graduating M.D. in 1839. This degree qualified him for employment in the Naval Medical Service: he joined the renowned polar explorer Captain James Clark Ross's Antarctic expedition to the South Magnetic Pole after receiving a commission as Assistant-Surgeon on HMS Erebus.
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