William Henry Harvey

William Henry Harvey was born on 5 February 1811 at Summerville near Limerick, Ireland, the youngest of 11 children. His father was a Quaker and a prominent merchant. William started his education at Ballitore School in County Kildare and developed a passion for natural history, especially botany. He was encouraged by Sir William Jackson Hooker, who invited him to contribute to his British Flora and The Botany of Captain Beechy's Voyage. Harvey became an authority on algae and bryophytes, and published several books on these topics, such as A Manual of the British Algae, Phycologia Britannica, Nereis Boreali-Americana, and Phycologia Australica. He also collaborated with Otto Wilhelm Sonder on the Flora Capensis, a comprehensive work on the plants of South Africa. Harvey travelled extensively to collect specimens and study the marine flora of different regions, such as North America, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific islands. He was appointed as the colonial treasurer of Cape Town in 1835, but resigned in 1842 due to ill health. He then moved to Dublin, where he received an honorary doctorate from Trinity College and became the curator of its herbarium. He also became the professor of botany of the Royal Dublin Society and later of Trinity College. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Linnean Society, and received several awards and honors for his contributions to botany. He married Miss Phelps in 1861, but had no children. He died of pneumonia on 15 May 1866 in Torquay, Devon, England, and was buried at Mount Jerome Cemetery in Dublin. His main algal herbarium is located at Trinity College Dublin. Harvey is regarded as one of the most influential and prolific botanists of the 19th century, and his works are still widely consulted by researchers and students of algae and plants.