Henry Collett
Sir Henry Collett (6 March 1836 – 21 December 1901) was an English soldier and botanist. He served as an army officer in the East India Company.
Life
Collett was born in Thetford, Norfolk, the fourth son of Rev. W. Collett and his second wife Ellen Clarke née Bidwell, He studied at Tonbridge School and at Addiscombe Military Seminary. He joined the Bengal army on 8 June 1855, rising through the ranks to become a lieutenant-colonel in 1879. In the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878–80) he acted as quartermaster-general on the staff of Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts. He was promoted colonel in 1884, made KCB in 1891, and from 1892 to 1893 he commanded the Peshawar district with the rank of major-general. He retired from the army in 1893.[1]
Collett was keen botanist, an interest that he developed when posted in 1878 in the Kurram valley. He studied and collected pants in Afghanistan, Algeria, Burma, the Canaries, Corsica, India, Java, and Spain. He was made a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1879. He was one of the founding members of the Simla Naturalists' Society. At his death he was working on a book on the flora of Simla, which was published posthumously as Flora Simlensis (1902).[1]
His herbarium collection was presented to Kew after his death.[1] Iris colletti was named after him in 1909.[2]
Notes
- 1 2 3 Vibart 1912.
- ↑ "Pacific Rim Native Plant Nursery". www.hillkeep.ca. 12 May 2008. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
- ↑ IPNI. Collett.
References
Vibart, Henry Meredith (1912). "Collett, Henry". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement. London: Smith, Elder & Co. - H. M. Vibart rev. James Lunt. "Collett, Sir Henry (1836-1901)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32497. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
External links
- Flora Simlensis
- Collett, Henry (1895) Notes on some plants of the Himalaya. Army & Navy Co-operative Society Limited, London.