British botanist. Thomas Archibald Sprague was born in Edinburgh, one of 11 children. From his actuary father, who was an amateur geologist and microscopist, he inherited his mathematical mind; from his mother, a love of botany and the arts. He gained a BSc with distinction in botany from the University of Edinburgh in 1898. Subsequent work would earn him a DSc degree from Edinburgh in 1927. After graduating, he joined the expedition of Captain HW Dowding to Venezuela and Colombia (1898-1900). On his return he was appointed to staff of the Royal Botanical Garden Kew, where for 20 years he was responsible for the groups Thalamiflorae and Disciflorae. He made major contributions to the field with his treatments of the Loranthaceae and Bignoniaceae families in Flora of Tropical Africa and Flora Capensis. He was later placed in charge of the American collections, but by this time his interests had switched from monographic studies to botanical history, ancient herbals, and nomenclature; indeed he became one of the world's foremost authorities on the theory and practice of the latter. During this period, with his sister, also a talented botanist, he published The Herbal of Valerius Cordus. He visited the Canary Islands in 1913 with John Hutchison, and during the First World War was posted to Punjab with the Artillery. He was elected to the Linnean Society of London in 1903 and received the Coronation Medal of King George VI in 1937, the same year he was named deputy director of Kew.

Sources:
A.A. Bullock, 1960, "Dr. Thomas Archibald Sprague 1877-1958", Taxon, 9(4): 93-102.