Bot at 21:58, 15 September 2022

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{{Short description|Scottish physician and botanist (1857–1944)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2012}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_prefix = Sir {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CMG|CIE|FRS|FRSE}}
| name = David Prain
| honorific_suffix =
| image =David Prain.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = 
| birth_date = {{birth date|1857|07|11|df=y}}
| birth_place = Fettercairn, Scotland
| death_date ={{death date and age|1944|03|16|1857|07|11|df=y}}
| death_place = Whyteleafe, England
| citizenship = 
| nationality = Scottish
| fields = Botany
| workplaces =
| patrons =
| education = [[Aberdeen Grammar School]]
| alma_mater = [[University of Edinburgh]]
}}

Sir '''David Prain''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CMG|CIE|FRS|FRSE}}<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | last1 = Burkill | first1 = I. H. | author-link = Isaac Henry Burkill| title = David Prain. 1857-1944 | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1944.0020 | journal = [[Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | volume = 4 | issue = 13 | pages = 746–770| year = 1944 | s2cid = 162727884 }}</ref> (11 July 1857 – 16 March 1944) was a [[Scotland|Scottish]] botanist who worked in India at the Calcutta Botanical Garden and went on to become Director of the [[Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew]].

==Life==
Born to David Prain, a saddler, and his wife Mary Thomson, in [[Fettercairn]], Scotland, in 1857, Prain attended the Fettercairn Parish School and then Aberdeen Grammar School. He then studied medicine at the [[University of Aberdeen]], where he gained his [[Master of Arts|M.A.]] in 1878. After teaching for two years at Ramsgate College, he returned to Aberdeen and thence to the [[University of Edinburgh]], earning an MB ChM in 1883 with highest honours. He was demonstrator of anatomy at the [[College of Surgeons of Edinburgh]] in 1882 and 1883, and at the University of Aberdeen in 1883 and 1884.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/hibd/departments/Archives/Archives-HR/Prain.shtml |title=David Prain (1857–1944) |publisher=HuntInstitute |access-date=27 December 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100616044440/http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/HIBD/Departments/Archives/Archives-HR/Prain.shtml |archive-date=16 June 2010 |df=dmy }}</ref>

In 1884 Prain was recommended to Sir [[George King (botanist)|George King]] (1840–1909), home on leave from his position as director of the Royal Botanic Garden at Calcutta and looking for a medical student with botanical interests to enter the [[Indian Medical Service]]. Prain duly went to India as a physician / botanist in the service, and in 1887 was appointed curator of the Calcutta herbarium.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Prain, Lt.-Col. Sir David|journal=Who's Who|year=1919|pages=1999–2000|url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015047639912;view=1up;seq=2041}}{{dead link|date=September 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In 1888 he was elected a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]]. His proposers were Sir [[Andrew Douglas Maclagan]], Argyll Robertson, [[Alexander Crum Brown]], and [[William Turner (anatomist)|Sir William Turner]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=14 January 2018|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1898 he was promoted to Director of the [[Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden|Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta]] as well as the [[Botanical Survey of India]], and superintendent of Cinchona Cultivation in Bengal, remaining there until 1905. From 1898 to 1905 he also served as Professor of Botany at the [[Medical College Kolkata|Medical College of Calcutta]]. In 1905 he became Director of the [[Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew]].,<ref>{{cite web |title=Adapted from Dykes, The Genus *Iris, p. 30. |url=http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/pi_books/scans/immigrants/184_007.pdf |publisher=ars-grin.gov |access-date=15 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924160540/http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/pi_books/scans/immigrants/184_007.pdf |archive-date=24 September 2015 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref> a post he held until 1922 when he was succeeded by [[Arthur William Hill|Sir Arthur William Hill]]. He was appointed a Commander of the [[Order of the Indian Empire]] (CIE) in the [[1906 Birthday Honours]] by King [[Edward VII]]. In 1912 he was knighted by King [[George V]].

Perhaps Prain's most difficult time as Director of the Kew gardens was in the years 1904-1908 when he was one of the lead players in an industrial dispute which pitted him against his garden staff and the Kew Garden trade union. Surprisingly his chief adversary was his sub-foreman, [[William Purdom]], representing a band of young gardener trainees. The dispute arose because a cohort of these trainees were not fully informed that their positions were only temporary. In addition to that the gardens industrial conditions were onerous, with a salary for someone such as Purdom well below the usual rates. William Purdom was ferocious as the union representative, bringing the newspapers of the time, the Kew Guild and leading politicians into the fray. Strikes and go-slows became a heated occurrence with Prain perhaps unfortunately blamed for an error made by his predecessor. Prain, who came from a humble background himself, was aware that his workers' grievances were well justified and went out of his way to find alternative positions in private employ for all those affected. Purdom appears to have continued the fight on principle and on a personal basis for another year until Prain finally made it a case that his combative gardener Purdom had to go, or he himself would. The establishment had no option but to back the Kew Director. The bizarre and unexpected twist however came in the final days just before Christmas 1908. Despite being a bane to the Kew Director, the latter clearly recognized the talents of William Purdom and recommended his employee as a plant collector for a joint venture by Harry Veitch and the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University to the northern provinces of China in 1909. No sooner had Purdom's dismissal been finalized, than that same establishment arranged for the British administration, including the Legation in Beijing, to give him all assistance. David Prain was evidently a very fair and honourable man.<ref>Watt, Alistair (2019). ''Purdom and Farrer Plant Hunters on the Eaves of China.'' {{ISBN|978-0-646-59786-7}} Published by author in an edition limited to 250 copies. Melbourne 2019.</ref>

He served as President of the Linnean Society 1916 to 1919.

Prain died at [[Whyteleafe]] in [[Surrey]] on 16 March 1944.

==Publications==
* ''Flora of the Sundribuns'' (1903)
* ''Bengal Plants'' (1903) republished 1963
* ''Diseases of Cultivated Trees and Plants'' (1914)
* ''Science Discipline'' (1930)

==Honours and awards==
In May 1905, Prain was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]].<ref name="frs"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27prain%27%29 |title=Librar and Archive catalogue |publisher=Royal Society |access-date=27 December 2010 }}{{dead link|date=December 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In 1907 he was awarded an [[Honorary degree|honorary doctorate]] of philosophy at the Linnaeus' [[Anniversary|tercentenary]] in [[Uppsala]], [[Sweden]], and became a member of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]] in 1912. He was also knighted in 1912. He served as president of the [[Linnean Society]] from 1916 to 1919, president of the [[Association of Applied Biologists]] from 1920 to 1921 and president of the [[Quekett Microscopical Club]] from 1924 to 1926. He was awarded the [[Veitch Memorial Medal]] of the [[Royal Horticultural Society]] in 1925 and the [[Linnean Medal]] in 1935.

In 1888 [[George King (botanist)|George King]] and [[Joseph Dalton Hooker]] published ''[[Prainea]]'' {{Au|King ex Hook.f.}} a flowering plant in the [[Moraceae]] family and named in David Prain's honour. Later in 2019 Hiroyoshi Ohashi and Kazuaki Ohashi published ''[[Daprainia]]'' {{Au|H.Ohashi & K.Ohashi}} (in the [[Fabaceae]] family).<ref>{{cite book | last=Burkhardt | first=Lotte | title=Eine Enzyklopädie zu eponymischen Pflanzennamen |trans-title=Encyclopedia of eponymic plant names | publisher=Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin | year=2022 | isbn=978-3-946292-41-8 | url=https://doi.org/10.3372/epolist2022|format=pdf |language=German |location=Berlin | doi=10.3372/epolist2022 |access-date=January 27, 2022}}</ref>

==Private life==
In 1887 Prain married Margaret Caird Thomson, daughter of Reverend William Thomson of Belhevie, south of Aberdeen. They had one son, Theodore Prain (1888-1914), who was killed in the first weeks of the [[First World War]] whilst serving as a lieutenant in the [[Leicestershire Regiment]].<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.cwgc.org/find/find-war-dead/results?firstName=Theodore&lastName=Prain%2B | title=Results}}</ref>

==Botanical Reference==

{{Botanist|Prain|Prain, David}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
*{{cite book
| last = Durand
| first = Théophile
|author2=Benjamin Daydon Jackson | author3-link = William Turner Thiselton-Dyer
|author3=William Turner Thiselton-Dyer |author4=David Prain |author5=Arthur William Hill | author6-link = Edward James Salisbury
|author6=Edward James Salisbury
| title = Index Kewensis plantarum phanerogamarum: Supplementum Tertium Nomina et Synonyma Omnium Generum et Specierum AB Initio Anni MDCCCCI Usque AD Finem Anni MDCCCCV Complectens
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=BRMDAAAAYAAJ
| edition = suppl. 3, 1901–1905
| year = 1908
| publisher = [[Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew]]
| author2-link = Benjamin Daydon Jackson
}}
*Correspondence to David Prain as Director of The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is being made available online through the [https://web.archive.org/web/20130217234347/http://www.kew.org/news/kew-blogs/library-art-archives/directors-correspondence/index.htm Directors' Correspondence Project].

{{Directors of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew}}
{{FRS 1905}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prain, David}}
[[Category:1857 births]]
[[Category:1944 deaths]]
[[Category:Scottish botanists]]
[[Category:Scottish horticulturists]]
[[Category:Botanists active in Kew Gardens]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Linnean Society of London]]
[[Category:Veitch Memorial Medal recipients]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire]]
[[Category:Indian Medical Service officers]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:19th-century British botanists]]
[[Category:20th-century British botanists]]

David Prain - Revision history

Bot at 21:58, 15 September 2022