Harold Frederick Comber

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Harold Frederick Comber ALS (31 December 1897 – 23 April 1969) was an English horticulturist and plant collector who was to specialise in the study of lilies Lilium sp. The eldest child of three, and only son of James and Ethel Comber, he was born at Nymans, Staplefield, Sussex, where his father was Head Gardener. He was educated at Handcross Council School until aged 12, when he entered Ardingly College for two years.[1] He did not excel academically, failing his Oxford Local examinations, but was noted for his keen powers of observation and a retentive memory.[2]

Career

On leaving Ardingly College, Comber worked with his father at Nymans for two years, during which time he visited other famous gardens, notably

Gardeners' Chronicle which was accepted for publication; Comber was just 17. Such was his precocity that at this same age he was entrusted with the management of the glasshouses and botanical collections when the older staff duly left for service in World War I.[1] A knee injury prevented Comber himself seeing active service in the war, and he was eventually directed to 'work of national importance', namely hardening and tempering parts of Lewis guns at Earlswood.[2]

After the cessation of hostilities, Comber joined

Cryptogam Botany, 96% in each of Botanical Nomenclature and Classification of Plants,[2] making him the ideal candidate for two plant-hunting expeditions in the Andes sponsored by the Andes Syndicate (a group of aristocratic gardening enthusiasts, including Lord Aberconway) in 1925–26 and 1926–27. Despite the occasionally extreme privations, and accompanied only by a boy guide, Comber sent back seeds and herbarium specimens of over 1200 species, including Embothrium coccineum (Chilean Fire Bush), Nothofagus antarctica, and several species of Berberis and Eucryphia
.

On completion of his studies and expeditions, Comber left Edinburgh to become head gardener for the

British North Borneo, to join his son James for three months collecting specimens for the Kew Herbarium, incidentally enjoying fishing and hunting trips with the natives.[1]

Personal life

Comber married Lilian Bertha Boughtwood (1894–1962) in March 1928. Their first son James (1929–2005), was an orchidologist affiliated to Kew, and their second son Richard was born in 1931. Their daughter, Mary Comber-Miles, became resident botanical artist at the University of British Columbia.[1]

Death

Harold Comber died on 23 April 1969 aged 72 in Gresham, Oregon. He was interred at the Cliffside Cemetery, Sandy. [3]

Selected publications

  • Comber, H. F. (1925). Self-sterility in the rhododendrons. Gardeners' Chronicle, London, Vol. 77, p. 300,
  • Comber, H. F. (1936). Embothrium coccineum and E. lanceolatum. Gardeners' Chronicle, London. Vol. 99.
  • Comber, H. F. (1949). A New Classification of the Genus Lilium, in the Royal Horticultural Society Lily Yearbook

Eponymy

The standard author abbreviation H.F.Comber is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Hsu, E. (2011). Harold Comber and his introductions. The Plantsman, Vol. 10, part 4, December 2011. RHS Publications, London.
  2. ^ a b Charman, V. A. Harold Frederick Comber. Wikispecies
  3. ^ International Plant Names Index.  H.F.Comber.

Further reading

  • Harvard University Herbarium (HUH), Botanist database: Comber, Harold Frederick [5]
  • McRae, E. A. (1998) Lilies, Portland / Oregon, pp. 345–346,
    ISBN 0881924105

External links

Wikispecies has information related to Harold Frederick Comber.
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