Harold Frederick Comber

Harold Frederick Comber ALS (31 December 1897 – 23 April 1969) was an English horticulturist and plant collector who was to specialize in the study of lilies Lilium sp. The eldest child of three, and only son of James and Ethel Comber, he was born at Nymans, Staplefield, Sussex, where his father was Head Gardener. He was educated at Handcross Council School until aged 12, when he entered Ardingly College for two years. He did not excel academically, failing his Oxford Local examinations, but was noted for his keen powers of observation and a retentive memory.

On leaving Ardingly College, Comber worked with his father at Nymans for two years, during which time he visited other famous gardens, notably Leonardslee, whose owner, Sir Edmund Loder, recommended him to Henry Elwes, who engaged him at his home, Colesbourne Park, Gloucestershire.[1] Elwes admired his skills, and encouraged him to write an article for the Gardeners' Chronicle which was accepted for publication; Comber was just 17. Such was his precocity that at this same age he was entrusted with the management of the glasshouses and botanical collections when the older staff duly left for service in World War I. A knee injury prevented Comber himself seeing active service in the war, and he was eventually directed to 'work of national importance', namely hardening and tempering parts of Lewis guns at Earlswood.

After the cessation of hostilities, Comber joined Bletchingley Castle Gardens, before being sponsored by Elwes and Loder to study for the Diploma Horticulture at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, where he also wrote a paper on the sterility of Rhododendrons. He obtained very good marks: 100% in Cryptogam Botany, 96% in each of Botanical Nomenclature and Classification of Plants,[2] making him the ideal candidate for two plant-hunting expeditions in the Andes sponsored by the Andes Syndicate (a group of aristocratic gardening enthusiasts, including Lord Aberconway) in 1925-26 and 1926-27. Despite the occasionally extreme privations, and accompanied only by a boy guide, Comber sent back seeds and herbarium specimens of over 1200 species, including the Chilean Fire Bush, Nothofagus antarctica, and several species of Berberis and Eucryphia.

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