Biography

British civil servant employed by the Admiralty, and botanist. Born in Bristol, Herbert William Pugsley attended Bristol Grammar School before moving to London at the age of 17 to be educated privately for the Civil Service. In 1888 he was accepted into the Works Department of the Admiralty as an accountant and he remained there until he retired in 1928, by which time he was in charge of the Admiralty Savings Bank. Studying in the evenings for his Bachelor's degree at London University he graduated in 1889 and married at the age of 26. For a wedding present the couple received a house in Wimbledon which he lived in with his wife and six sons until the day he died.

Pugsley has been described as one of the greatest British amateur botanists and from 1900 he published extensive revisionary and monographic treatments for a range of British and European genera. In 1902 he produced an important work entitled "British Capreolate Fumitories" which signalled the start of a lifelong affection for and dedication to this taxa, particularly the genus Fumaria, on which he would become a world authority. In 1912 he produced his greatest publication on this subject: "The genus Fumaria in Britain". Also interested in several other genera, particularly Euphrasia and Hieracium, he published many papers accordingly. Above all, however, Pugsley loved the Narcissus which he cultivated personally for much of his life from bulbs collected on his many trips to the Alps. In fact, almost every year he travelled to the Swiss Alps or less frequently to Italy, France, Germany or Austria and also paid much attention to the Fumitories there. Pugsley only travelled further afield once, when he visited Algeria with E.G. Baker and C. Norman in order to visit north African Fumitories of the genus Rupicapnos.

Following retirement his botanical activity became almost ceaseless, his work culminating in monographs of the British Hieracia and Euphrasia in 1930 before turning his attention to the orchids and producing an array of papers on this subject in his final years. Pugsley was also keen on other aspects of natural history, in particular the Lepidoptera, and was a talented artist, using his own illustrations in many of his monographs. His specimens are often identified simply by the initials "H.W.P.", a convention he also applied to many co-collectors leading to considerable ambiguity. Some material was acquired with the herbarium of C.E. Salmon in 1930. Pugsley's own herbarium, of some 30,000 specimens including many critical British genera, was bequeathed to BM in 1948.

Sources:
N.Y. Sandwith, 1949, "Herbert William Pugsley", Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of London, 160: 187-193
A.J. Wilmott, 1949, "Herbert William Pugsley (1868-1947)", Watsonia, 1: 124-130.

Biography

British civil servant employed by the Admiralty, and botanist. Born in Bristol, Herbert William Pugsley attended Bristol Grammar School before moving to London at the age of 17 to be educated privately for the Civil Service. In 1888 he was accepted into the Works Department of the Admiralty as an accountant and he remained there until he retired in 1928, by which time he was in charge of the Admiralty Savings Bank. Studying in the evenings for his Bachelor's degree at London University he graduated in 1889 and married at the age of 26. For a wedding present the couple received a house in Wimbledon which he lived in with his wife and six sons until the day he died.

Pugsley has been described as one of the greatest British amateur botanists and from 1900 he published extensive revisionary and monographic treatments for a range of British and European genera. In 1902 he produced an important work entitled "British Capreolate Fumitories" which signalled the start of a lifelong affection for and dedication to this taxa, particularly the genus Fumaria, on which he would become a world authority. In 1912 he produced his greatest publication on this subject: "The genus Fumaria in Britain". Also interested in several other genera, particularly Euphrasia and Hieracium, he published many papers accordingly. Above all, however, Pugsley loved the Narcissus which he cultivated personally for much of his life from bulbs collected on his many trips to the Alps. In fact, almost every year he travelled to the Swiss Alps or less frequently to Italy, France, Germany or Austria and also paid much attention to the Fumitories there. Pugsley only travelled further afield once, when he visited Algeria with E.G. Baker and C. Norman in order to visit north African Fumitories of the genus Rupicapnos.

Following retirement his botanical activity became almost ceaseless, his work culminating in monographs of the British Hieracia and Euphrasia in 1930 before turning his attention to the orchids and producing an array of papers on this subject in his final years. Pugsley was also keen on other aspects of natural history, in particular the Lepidoptera, and was a talented artist, using his own illustrations in many of his monographs. His specimens are often identified simply by the initials "H.W.P.", a convention he also applied to many co-collectors leading to considerable ambiguity. Some material was acquired with the herbarium of C.E. Salmon in 1930. Pugsley's own herbarium, of some 30,000 specimens including many critical British genera, was bequeathed to BM in 1948.

Sources:
N.Y. Sandwith, 1949, "Herbert William Pugsley", Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of London, 160: 187-193
A.J. Wilmott, 1949, "Herbert William Pugsley (1868-1947)", Watsonia, 1: 124-130.

Biography

British civil servant employed by the Admiralty, and botanist. Born in Bristol, Herbert William Pugsley attended Bristol Grammar School before moving to London at the age of 17 to be educated privately for the Civil Service. In 1888 he was accepted into the Works Department of the Admiralty as an accountant and he remained there until he retired in 1928, by which time he was in charge of the Admiralty Savings Bank. Studying in the evenings for his Bachelor's degree at London University he graduated in 1889 and married at the age of 26. For a wedding present the couple received a house in Wimbledon which he lived in with his wife and six sons until the day he died.

Pugsley has been described as one of the greatest British amateur botanists and from 1900 he published extensive revisionary and monographic treatments for a range of British and European genera. In 1902 he produced an important work entitled "British Capreolate Fumitories" which signalled the start of a lifelong affection for and dedication to this taxa, particularly the genus Fumaria, on which he would become a world authority. In 1912 he produced his greatest publication on this subject: "The genus Fumaria in Britain". Also interested in several other genera, particularly Euphrasia and Hieracium, he published many papers accordingly. Above all, however, Pugsley loved the Narcissus which he cultivated personally for much of his life from bulbs collected on his many trips to the Alps. In fact, almost every year he travelled to the Swiss Alps or less frequently to Italy, France, Germany or Austria and also paid much attention to the Fumitories there. Pugsley only travelled further afield once, when he visited Algeria with E.G. Baker and C. Norman in order to visit north African Fumitories of the genus Rupicapnos.

Following retirement his botanical activity became almost ceaseless, his work culminating in monographs of the British Hieracia and Euphrasia in 1930 before turning his attention to the orchids and producing an array of papers on this subject in his final years. Pugsley was also keen on other aspects of natural history, in particular the Lepidoptera, and was a talented artist, using his own illustrations in many of his monographs. His specimens are often identified simply by the initials "H.W.P.", a convention he also applied to many co-collectors leading to considerable ambiguity. Some material was acquired with the herbarium of C.E. Salmon in 1930. Pugsley's own herbarium, of some 30,000 specimens including many critical British genera, was bequeathed to BM in 1948.

Sources:
N.Y. Sandwith, 1949, "Herbert William Pugsley", Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of London, 160: 187-193
A.J. Wilmott, 1949, "Herbert William Pugsley (1868-1947)", Watsonia, 1: 124-130.