Person    | Male  Born 21/12/1799  Died 8/12/1841

David Don

Categories: Science

Countries: Scotland

David Don was born on 21 December 1799 at Doo Hillock, Forfar, Angus, Scotland, a son of George Don (1764-1814) and Caroline Clementina Don née Stuart. His father was a curator at the Royal Botanic Garden, Leith Walk, Edinburgh. He was baptised in Forfar on 26 December 1799.

He came to London in 1819 and initially worked as a librarian for the botanist Aylmer Bourke Lambert. In 1821 he visited Paris, France, where he met many prominent scientists of the age before becoming the librarian of the Linnean Society of London in 1822. He was made an associate of the society the following year and was a Professor of Botany at King's College, London from 1836.

He described several of the major conifers discovered in the period, including first descriptions of Coast Redwood (Taxodium sempervirens D. Don; now Sequoia sempervirens (D. Don) Endl.), Bristlecone Fir (Pinus bracteata D. Don, now Abies bracteata (D. Don) A. Poit.), Grand Fir (Pinus grandis Douglas ex D. Don; now Abies grandis (Douglas ex D. Don) Lindl) and Coulter Pine (Pinus coulteri D. Don), and was the first to treat Sugi (Cupressus japonica Thunb.; now Cryptomeria japonica (Thunb.) D. Don) in a new genus. He also named the orchid genus Pleione in 1825.

Whilst the librarian to the botanist Aylmer Bourke Lambert he compiled for him, Prodromus florae nepalensis ... London, J. Gale, 1825, based on collections made by the botanists Francis Hamilton and Nathaniel Wallich of the Culcutta Botanic Garden. As we could find no image of David Don we have shown an image of this publication.

On 15 April 1837 in the Parish Church of St Anne, Soho, he married Mary Evans (1788/9–1864) and the 1841 census shows them living at 32 Soho Square, Westminster, giving his occupation as a librarian. He died from cancer, aged 41 years, on 8 December 1841 and was buried on 15 December 1841 in the General Cemetery of All Souls, Kensal Green (now known as Kensal Green Cemetery, Harrow Road, London, W10 4RL).

Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
David Don

Commemorated ati

Botanists

Sir Joseph Banks, 1743-1820, President of the Royal Society, Robert Brown, 17...

Read More

Other Subjects

Sir Richard Arkwright

Sir Richard Arkwright

Industrialist and inventor. From Preston. Set up a factory with a newly designed method of cotton-spinning. He worked his employees, including children, very hard and became very rich.

Person, Industry, Science

1 memorial
Festival of Britain

Festival of Britain

'A tonic for the Nation', The Festival was intended to cheer us all up after WW2, and incidentally to celebrate the centenary of the 1851 Great Exhibition. The symbol for the Festival was designed ...

Event, Art, Cinema, Science, Tourism / Traditions

20 memorials
William Shipley

William Shipley

Drawing master, social reformer and inventor. Wikipedia's page differs significantly from the Oxford Dictionary of National Bigraphy. They agree that he was born in Kent and trained as a painter. H...

Person, Art, Science

1 memorial
Nicolaus  Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus

Mathematician and astronomer.   Argued that the Sun, not the Earth, was the centre of the universe.

Person, Science, Poland

1 memorial
Captain Alexander Ross Clarke

Captain Alexander Ross Clarke

Surveyor.  Born Reading. Served in Canada and on his return worked on the ordnance survey in Southampton.  Died Reigate.  the picture source has a bio.

Person, Armed Forces, Science

1 memorial