Noel Lothian

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Thomas Robert Noel Lothian

OBE
Born(1925-12-25)December 25, 1925
Mont Albert, Victoria, Australia
DiedSeptember 24, 2004(2004-09-24) (aged 78)[1]
Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Resting placeMount Lofty Botanic Garden, South Australia[2]
Scientific career
FieldsBotany

Thomas Robert Noel Lothian OBE (25 December 1915 – 24 September 2004), generally known as Noel Lothian, was an Australian botanist.[3]

Lothian was born on 25 December 1915 in the Melbourne suburb of Mont Albert. After completing school at Scotch College, Melbourne, he studied at Burnley Horticultural College.[2][4] He worked in botanical gardens in Melbourne and at the Christchurch Botanic Gardens in New Zealand, then started study at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1938.[5] Lothian was an exchange student at the Munich Botanic Garden when the Second World War broke out. After returning to the United Kingdom to complete studies at Kew Gardens, he joined the Australian Army and managed farms in New Guinea as a lieutenant.[6][7]

After the war, Lothian studied and lectured at the Lincoln Agricultural College in New Zealand. In 1948 he was appointed director of the Adelaide Botanic Garden, a position he held until 1980.[6] While there, he was a prominent member of the Royal Society and chairman of its offshoot, the Field Naturalists Society for several years. In 1961 he was awarded an OBE for services to horticulture, and in 1975 the Veitch Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society.[2] He died on 24 September 2004 in Townsville, Queensland.[2] His ashes were subsequently scattered at the cool temperate botanical gardens at Mount Lofty that he had been integral in establishing during his tenure as director, on 8 October 2004.[2]

The standard author abbreviation Lothian is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[8]

Botanical Collections[]

Specimens collected by Lothian are held by many herbaria in Australasia, including the State Herbarium of South Australia, the Australian Tropical Herbarium at James Cook University, the National Herbarium of Victoria - Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, the Australian National Herbarium, and the Auckland War Memorial Museum Herbarium, among others.[9]

Legacy[]

He is the namesake of the Noel Lothian hall, a function space in the western end of the State Herbarium of South Australia, Adelaide Botanic Garden that opened on 16 June 2005.[10] The function space and herbarium themselves are located in a refurbished tram barn.

References[]

  1. ^ "Biographical Notes". Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria Australian National Herbarium. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e "Thomas Robert Noel Lothian - 25 December 1915–24 September 2004" (PDF). New Zealand Garden Journal. Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture. 2006. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  3. ^ "Harvard University Herbaria - Index of Botanists - Lothian, Thomas Robert Noel". Harvard University Herbaria. Harvard University. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  4. ^ "Obituaries". Scotch College, Melbourne. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  5. ^ "Thomas Robert Noel Lothian, O.B.E., N.D.H.(N.Z.) , L.F.R.A.I.P.R., J.P., President 1987/88" (PDF). . Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 1988. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b "State Library of South Australia - Thomas Robert Noel Lothian, O.B.E." (PDF). State Library of South Australia. 5 September 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  7. ^ "World War Two Service". Australian Government – Department of Veteran's Affairs. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  8. ^ IPNI.  Lothian.
  9. ^ "The Australasian Virtual Herbarium". The Australasian Virtual Herbarium. Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria (CHAH). 2020. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  10. ^ Department of Environment and Heritage (2004–2005). Annual Report (PDF). Adelaide: Department for Environment and Heritage. p. 46.CS1 maint: date format (link)
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