H. N. Ridley
| Henry Nicholas Ridley | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 10 December 1855 |
| Died | 24 October 1956 (aged 100) |
| Nationality | British |
| Known for | Rubber industry on the Malay peninsula |
| Awards |
Linnean Medal (1950) Fellow of the Royal Society |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Botany |
| Institutions | Singapore Botanic Gardens |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | |
Henry Nicholas Ridley CMG (1911), MA (Oxon), FRS,FLS, F.R.H.S. (10 December 1855 – 24 October 1956) was an English botanist, geologist and naturalist who lived much of life in Singapore. He was instrumental in promoting rubber trees in the Malay Peninsula and, for the fervour with which he pursued it, came to be called as "Mad Ridley".
Henry Ridley was the second son and third child born to Louisa Pole Stuart and Oliver Matthew Ridley in West Harling where his father was the Rector. At the age of three his mother died and his father moved to Cobham in Kent. He studied at Tonbridge and then went to Haileybury where his brother Stuart also studied. At Cobham, he had taken to the idea of collecting insects and he continued this at Haileybury where the school encouraged him to publish as "List of the Mammals and Coleoptera of Haleybury". The two brothers left Haileybury and Henry went to a private tutor at Medmenham near Henley who encouraged him in Zoology and then went to Oxford where he studied under Edwin Ray Lankester and George Rolleston while also taking an interest in botany and geology under the influence of Marmaduke Lawson and Joseph Prestwich. He graduated in 1878 and received a Burdett-Coutts scholarship that let him conduct research on fossil from quarries near Oxford. He then joined the British Museum in the botany department to replace Henry Trimen who had moved to Ceylon. He specialised in the monocotyledons and also began to travel around Europe. In 1887 he joined the Royal Society expedition with George Ramage to the island of Fernando de Noronha and published on the collections on returning. In 1888 he applied and was selected for the post of director of Gardens and Forests in the Straits Settlements. He was to meet Odoardo Beccari at Florence for information and to meet Trimen at Peradeniya to learn about rubber cultivation along the route.
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