Bratt, Geoffrey Charles   (1931 - 1977)

Born on 8 January 1931 in Hobart, Tasmania; died on 16 Oct 1977 in Melbourne, Vic.

He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in applied chemistry from the University of Tasmania.

That year, he started working at the Electrolytic Zinc Company as a research scientist.

He held this position for three years before leaving to enter the Imperial College of Science in London to start a PhD degree. He completed this in 1959 and thereafter returned to the Electrolytic Zinc Company, again as a research scientist. By the time of his death he was the Senior Principle Research Officer.

As a result of his lifelong interest in bushwalking, Bratt joined the Imperial College Exploring Society Karakorum Expedition conducted in 1957-58, the aim of which was to scale the world's second-highest mountain peak. Although the expedition did not climb this peak, they did manage to successfully climb K10.

As a member of the British Glaciological Society he accepted an invitation from Eric Shipton to join an expedition to Patagonia in 1958-59. It was here that he met lichenologist Peter Wilfred James, who stimulated his interest in lichens.

Once settled back in Australia he immediately started investigating the lichen flora of Tasmania. He incorporated a work room and herbarium into the large house which he and his wife, Margaret, built in West Moonah.

He collected extensively on his many bushwalking trips throughout the remote parts of the state.

He was appointed Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Botany at the University of Tasmania in 1969.

After suffering kidney failure in 1974, he had to forgo major expeditions, but he was able to spend more time with the specimens in his herbarium, and most of his lichen publications were published after that.

He died in 1977 at the age of 46 and his collection of 15,000 specimens is now held by the Tasmanian herbarium.

Memberships and awards:
- Member of the Royal Geographical Society in 1959,
- Life membership of the Royal Society of Tasmania in 1965.

Several lichen taxa have been named in his honour.
- Cladonia enantia var. brattii Kantvilas (2013)
- Menegazzia brattii Kantvilas (2012)
- Parmelia brattii Essl. (1976)
- Pseudocyphellaria brattii D.J.Galloway & Kantvilas (1997)
- Rinodina brattii H.Mayrhofer (1984)
- Vouauxiomyces brattii S.Y.Kondr. (1996)

Source: Extracted from:
https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/geoffrey-charles-bratt-24-57mn3y
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Charles_Bratt
https://www.anbg.gov.au/lichen/history-3.html
Lichenologist, 10: 101-103 (1978), Obituary - GEOFFREY CHARLES BRATT, 1931-1977
Portrait Photo: 1957, Imperial College Karakoram expedition, from group photo,
Himalayan Dreaming, Australian Mountaineering, by Will Stiffen, ANU press, (2010), image 3.2

Collecting localities for 'Bratt, G.C.' from AVH (2024)

Data from 9,382 specimens