Harold Fletcher (botanist)
Dr Harold Roy Fletcher FRSE was an English botanist and horticulturalist. He was Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh from 1956 to 1970 and Her Majesty's Botanist 1966 to 1978. As an author he is known as H.R. Fletcher.Life
He was born in Glossop in Derbyshire on 14 April 1907 the son of James Fletcher. He attended Glossop Grammar School. He attended the University of Manchester graduating with a BSc in 1929. He then undertook postgraduate studies at the University of Aberdeen gaining a doctorate in 1933.
In 1943 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Sir William Wright Smith, James R Matthews, James Ritchie and James Couper Brash. He served as the Society's Vice President 1962 to 1965 and won their Neill Prize for the period 1971-73.
From 1951 to 1954 he was Director of the Royal Horticultural Society at Wisley. In 1954 he became Assistant Keeper at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh and was promoted to be the 11th Regius Keeper in 1956, holding the post until 1970.
The University of Edinburgh and the University of St Andrews both awarded him honorary doctorates in 1971.
He died on 27 August 1978.Publications
In 1941 he married Evelyn Betty Veronica Sloan.
