City man’s lifelong passion for nature

November 7, 2003

HOOKER ROAD
(Paine Road to Frere Road)

William Jackson Hooker, one of the world’s top botanists.

NAMED after the little Norwich boy who grew up to survive snake bites and ship fires to become one of the world’s top botanists . . . and the man who saved Kew Gardens for the nation.

William Jackson Hooker was born in Magdalen Street during the summer of 1785.

His father, Joseph, was a prosperous businessman who had arrived in the city from Exeter and had fallen in love with a local girl, Lydia Vincent.

Joseph loved cultivating “curious” plants and growing succulents — a favourite hobby of the more wealthy citizens of Norwich.

Their son, William, grew up with an extraordinary passion for nature.

His cousin was George Vincent, a future landscape painter and one of the Norwich School artists.

William went to Norwich Grammar School. By the time he was 20, he had made his mark on the scientific world with the discovery of a rare moss near Norwich.

His godfather had left him a handy sum of money, so young William jumped at the chance of going travelling, pursuing plants on adventures all over the world.

But he was back in Great Yarmouth when he collected more than he had bargained for. A viper bit him.

William was carried in a collapsed state to the home of Dawson Turner, where he was nursed through a long illness.

One of those who cared for him was Dawson’s daughter, Maria — and they fell in love.

But before they married, William was off on his travels again. In 1809 he visited Iceland, but on the way back the ship caught fire and he lost all his collections and possessions.

The following year he and Maria married. At first they lived in Halesworth. He continued to travel the world, becoming more and more famous, and in 1816 was appointed Professor of Botany at Glasgow University.

William Jackson Hooker became director of Kew Gardens and introduced the Palm House, which grew to be famous in his care.

He held this position for 30 years and established a network of plant collectors across the world.

In 1836 he was knighted by King William IV and in 1841 he was appointed as director of the Royal Gardens at Kew.

At the time, the gardens had been rather neglected, but William set about transforming them. Under his care the gardens flourished. They expanded to 75 acres and 270 acres of arboretum and pleasure gardens.

He revitalised the gardens, added a museum and the world-famous Palm House and opened them to the public.

Kew also played a key role in Britain’s rise to industrial power, encouraging the likes of sugar cane, cotton, linseed oil, linen, tea and coffee.

And it played a key role in the introduction of the Cinchona plant from India, which produces quinine to fight malaria, and the Para rubber plant from Brazil.

William died from a throat infection in 1865 at the age of 1865. He was 81.
His son Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, also a great traveller and botanist, took over as director at Kew.

We can all be proud of William Jackson Hooker.

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