On This Day 18th September 1907 the Botanist and Banker Ted Lousley was born. A resident of 7 Penistone Road, Streatham
As part of the Lambeth Heritage Festival (2017) , the South London Botanical Institute put on an event to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Job Edward (Ted) Lousley, a Streatham based botanist, prolific author and past President of the SLBI. His final address was 7 Penistone Road, Streatham. He was a governor at Woodmansterne and Granton Schools and a member of the Streatham Ratepay- ers’ Association. I thank the Institute for providing a copy of the exhibition notes to use for this article.
Ted Lousley was born in Clapham on 18 September 1907 and lived for most of his life in Streatham, dying on 6 January 1976. He attended a Brixton primary school, and later Selhurst Grammar School. He first visited the South London Botanical Institute as a schoolboy.
He left school at 17, and was subsequently employed by Barclays Bank, first in south London, and eventually in the Trustee Department of the Bank’s head of- fice, in the city.
At the age of 19 he served on the council of the British Empire Naturalists’ As- sociation. Later he was prominent in the Botanical Society of the British lsles (now the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland), the London Natural History Society, and the SLBI, in due course serving as president of all three.
ln addition to numerous articles in the journals of the BSBI and LNHS, he pub- lished four books: Wild Flowers of Chalk and Limestone, Collins New Natural- ist series, no.1-6 (1950); Flora of the Isles of Scilly (1971); Flora of Surrey (1976); Docks and Knotweeds, completed by D.H. Kent and published by the BSBI (1981).
A commemorative plaque to Job Edward Lousley, ‘banker and botanist’ can be seen in St Olave’s church, Hart Street, in the City of London, near a memorial to William Turner (1509/10-1568), who is considered to be the ‘Father of British Botany’.
(Judy Harris- Streatham Society)
As part of the Lambeth Heritage Festival (2017) , the South London Botanical Institute put on an event to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Job Edward (Ted) Lousley, a Streatham based botanist, prolific author and past President of the SLBI. His final address was 7 Penistone Road, Streatham. He was a governor at Woodmansterne and Granton Schools and a member of the Streatham Ratepay- ers’ Association. I thank the Institute for providing a copy of the exhibition notes to use for this article.
Ted Lousley was born in Clapham on 18 September 1907 and lived for most of his life in Streatham, dying on 6 January 1976. He attended a Brixton primary school, and later Selhurst Grammar School. He first visited the South London Botanical Institute as a schoolboy.
He left school at 17, and was subsequently employed by Barclays Bank, first in south London, and eventually in the Trustee Department of the Bank’s head of- fice, in the city.
At the age of 19 he served on the council of the British Empire Naturalists’ As- sociation. Later he was prominent in the Botanical Society of the British lsles (now the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland), the London Natural History Society, and the SLBI, in due course serving as president of all three.
ln addition to numerous articles in the journals of the BSBI and LNHS, he pub- lished four books: Wild Flowers of Chalk and Limestone, Collins New Natural- ist series, no.1-6 (1950); Flora of the Isles of Scilly (1971); Flora of Surrey (1976); Docks and Knotweeds, completed by D.H. Kent and published by the BSBI (1981).
A commemorative plaque to Job Edward Lousley, ‘banker and botanist’ can be seen in St Olave’s church, Hart Street, in the City of London, near a memorial to William Turner (1509/10-1568), who is considered to be the ‘Father of British Botany’.
(Judy Harris- Streatham Society)
