Edward James Salisbury

Sir Edward James Salisbury
Born	(1886-04-16)16 April 1886 Limbrick Hall, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, England
Died	10 November 1978(1978-11-10) (aged 92) Felpham, West Sussex, England
Education	University College School
Alma mater	University College London
Occupation	Ecologist, botanist
Employer	East London College
Organization	Agricultural Improvement Council British Ecological Society Hertfordshire Natural History Society Norfolk & Norwich Naturalists' Society Royal Horticultural Society Royal Society
Title	D.Sc. (1913) Quain Professor of botany (1929–1943) FRS (1933) CBE (1939) Knighted (1946) Hon. LL.D. Edin. (1950) Hon. LL.D. Glas. (1956)
Spouse(s)	Mabel Elwin-Coles (1917–1956)
Children	none
Parent(s)	James Wright Salisbury (businessman) Elizabeth Salisbury née Stimpson
Relatives	Frank O. Salisbury (cousin)
Awards	Veitch Memorial Medal (1935) Royal Medal (1945) VMH (1953)

Sir Edward James Salisbury FRS (16 April 1886 – 10 November 1978) was an English botanist and ecologist. He was born in Harpenden, Hertfordshire and graduated in botany from University College London in 1905. In 1913, he obtained a D.Sc. with a thesis on fossil seeds and was appointed a senior lecturer at East London College. He returned to University College London as a senior lecturer, from 1924 as a reader in plant ecology and from 1929 as Quain Professor of botany.

He was director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew from 1943 to 1956. He was responsible for the restoration of the gardens after the Second World War.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 15 March 1933 and won the society’s Royal Medal in 1945 for "his notable contributions to plant ecology and to the study of the British flora generally". In 1936, he was awarded The Veitch Memorial Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society in acknowledgement of his book The Living Garden (1935), which was enormously popular. In 1939, he received the Commander of the Order of the British Empire and in 1946 he was knighted.