British-born botanist who built up the herbarium at Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden (NBG, now named the Compton Herbarium in his honour). Robert Compton spent more than 30 years in South Africa, where he served as the second director of the Kirstenbosch gardens. He graduated with a double first class degree from Cambridge University in 1909 and continued there from 1911-1913 as a demonstrator. During this time he mainly published works on plant morphology. Participating in an expedition to New Caledonia in 1914 he made extensive collections and discovered several new genera and species. His botanical work was interrupted by war service in 1915-1918, following which Compton moved to South Africa as Director of the National Botanic Gardens at Kirstenbosch. At the same time he became the Harold Pearson Professor of Botany at the University of Cape Town (a chair named after Compton's predecessor). Compton served at Kirstenbosch and Cape Town until his retirement 34 years later, founding a new herbarium at Kirstenbosch in 1939 after the Bolus Herbarium was moved to the University of Cape Town.
The taxonomy of South African flora dominated Compton's research, the results of which he usually published in the Journal of South African Botany, which he founded in 1935, and edited. He published Wild Flowers of the Cape of Good Hope, illustrated by E.G. Rice, in 1951. In total he described more than 200 new species and seven new genera of South African plants, and the 35,000 specimens collected in the country by him are now divided between South African herbaria. Compton retired to Swaziland in 1953, where he was commissioned by the government to conduct a botanical survey of the country. He made over 11,000 collections in Swaziland before funding was cut in 1966, and his Flora of Swaziland appeared in 1976 (when he was aged 90). The manuscript and all his work was nearly lost before it was published when a representative delivering the tome to the printer had his car, containing the manuscript, stolen. Fortunately the car was traced and recovered, minus all its valuable contents except for the Flora. Compton lived in Cape Town once more from 1971 onwards, near to his daughter and the Compton Herbarium.
Compton was president of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science in 1957 and received the Association's medal in recognition of his work. He was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society and was awarded an honorary DSc by the University of Cape Town in 1968. The genera Comptonella Baker f. and Comptonanthus B.Nord both honour him, as do about 20 species epithets (e.g. Protea comptonii Beard and Gladiolus comptonii G.J.Lewis).
Sources:
L.E. Codd, 1980, Bothalia, 13(1-2): 244-245
R.H. Compton, 1977, Veld and Flora, 63(1): 4-7; 63(2): 6-9
J.P. Rourke, 1980, Journal of South African Botany, 46(1): i-vii
H.B. Rycroft, 1979, Veld and Flora, 65: 74-75.
