British botanist and curator in the British and European Herbaria at the Natural History Museum (BM). Born in Tottenham, Alfred James Wilmott moved to Cambridge while quite young, where his father taught classics and history at Homerton Training College. Studying at the New Cambridge County school he was their first student to obtain a scholarship for Cambridge University and he entered St. John's College in 1906. His father, an enthusiastic and knowledgeable man in many subjects, encouraged his son's interest in natural history. Wilmott was first attracted to the study of Lepidoptera but shifted his focus onto plant life and while at Cambridge made long expeditions on his bicycle in search of plants.
In 1910 Wilmott was awarded the Hutchinson Scholarship and he graduated with a first in both parts of the natural science tripos. For a short while he worked as a demonstrator at the university and lived at Merton College before being appointed curatorial assistant in the botany department of what was then the British Museum (Natural History) in 1911. It was his mentor C.E. Moss, author of the Cambridge British Flora, who directed him to this post and Wilmott contributed a monograph of the Atriplex L. to this publication while at university.
At the museum, Wilmott was tasked with isolating the European phanerogamic plant specimens in the general herbarium and with the organisation of both the European and British herbaria. This job would be his life's work and he became quite an authority on the British flora, organising new acquisitions and identifying specimens for many other naturalists. Although most of his energy was expended in the curation of the collections, he did find some time to conduct research and published many short papers. Specialising in the marsh orchids, Wilmott was also particularly interested in the genus Salicornia L. and hoped to produce a monograph on the group after his retirement. He was also responsible for editing the 10th edition of Babington's Manual of British Botany.
Wilmott botanised widely in Britain, often alongside F. Druce, and hoped to see every native plant in its natural environment. Outside of the UK he visited Spain twice, once in 1916 with T. Lofthouse, bringing back 3,000 specimens from the Sierra Nevada, and later (1927) with C.C. Lacaita he travelled for 10 weeks and retrieved 2,000 numbers.
For a while Wilmott studied nomenclature and was interested in defining terms below species level but he also had many hobbies outside of natural history. An accomplished pianist and violinist he also played football, cricket, billiards and table tennis. In this latter pursuit he reached world class standard, playing for the English team and achieving the title of Veteran Singles Champion in 1934-1935. Also a keen enthusiast he attended every match he could and was active in legislation; indeed he brought his scientific merits to the game introducing a new method for testing the sphericity, elasticity and regularity of diameter in table tennis balls. This internationally adopted system was a great success, although it did cause problems at the World Championships in Paris when adjudicators issued balls marked with a "B" to their players. Thinking the symbol stood for "Bon" , chaos broke out because Wilmott had actually intended it for "Bad".
A tall, well built man of nervous temperament he expressed his views passionately but was a generous teacher and extremely honest. Suffering from angina in later life he died suddenly the day after addressing the Linnaean Society on the topic of classification and geographic distribution. Wilmott was married to Jessie Eveline and they had one son, John Wilmott.
Sources:
A.H.G. Alston and M.S. Campbell, 1951, "Obituary: Mr. A. J. Wilmott", Watsonia, 2: 63-70
I. Montagu, 1950, " "Willie" (the late A. J. Wilmott)", Table Tennis, 8(8): 7.
