Richard Holttum, botanist and pteridologist, worked for many years in the Malay Peninsula. He was born into a Quaker family in Linton, Cambridgeshire, and after his schooling in Saffron Walden and York entered St. John's College, Cambridge. His studies were interrupted by service in the First World War, which saw Holttum volunteer in France with the Friends' Ambulance Service. In 1919 he received the Croix de Guerre for this work and in 1920 graduated from Cambridge with first class honours in the Natural Sciences Tripos.
After working for two years as a junior demonstrator with A.C. Seward at Cambridge (concentrating on fossil plants and making his first collecting expedition, to Greenland), Holttum was appointed Assistant Director of the Botanic Gardens, Straits Settlements (Singapore). The Director, I.H. Burkill, was soon to retire and despite his inexperience Holttum took up the reins as Acting Director in 1925. Within a few years he was confirmed as the new permanent director and embarked on a successful term in office that would last more than 20 years.
While in Singapore, Holttum undertook wide-ranging research and collected in many parts of Southeast Asia, especially beginning to concentrate on ferns and orchids. When the Japanese occupied Singapore during World War Two, Holttum remained working at the gardens and, released for the time being from his administrative duties, was able to complete more research than usual. He thus prepared a number of monographs, two of which were later published as the Revised Flora of Malaya volumes one and two (orchids and ferns).
Holttum became an avid horticulturalist in Singapore, being a founder member and president of the Singapore Gardening Society and authoring Gardening in the lowlands of Malaya (1953). He was also one of the founders of the Malayan Orchid Society.
Holttum resigned from the botanic gardens in 1949 and took up the Chair of Botany at the new University of Malaya. He served in this role for five years before retiring to England and settling in Kew. Holttum penned about 500 scientific texts, largely on ferns and orchids, but also dealing with bamboos, gingers and the Marantaceae family. Many plant taxa are named in his honour, including the fern genus Holttumiella Copel.
Sources:
Anon., 1991, "Professor Richard Eric Holttum", Taxon, 40(1): 150
R.E. Holttum, 1975, Flora Malesiana Bulletin, 28: 2477-2500
R.E. Holttum, 1986, "Retrospect on a 90th Birthday", Kew Bulletin, 41(3): 484-489
D.B. Lellinger, 1990, "Richard Eric Holttum (1885-1990)", American Fern Journal, 80(4): 191-192
D. McClintock, H.M. Burkill, A. Johnson et al, 1976, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 8: 1-23
W.H. Wagner, Jr., 1969, "Richard Eric Holttum, Distinguished Pteridologist", American Fern Journal, 59(1): 1-3.
