Hubbard, Charles Edward (1900-1980)

C.B.E., D.Sc. (honoris causa).

Born in Norfolk, England he began work in the Royal Gardens on the Sandringham estate. In 1920 he moved to Kew Gardens and in 1923 started to work in the herbarium. He was an energetic and talented young man who began to study grasses. Charles Hubbard visited the Queensland Herbarium (1930-31) as an exchange botanist while W. D. Francis spent a year a Kew. During his short stay he collected some 15,000 specimens and in February 1931 visited central Queensland collecting in the vicinity of Rockhampton and the Fitzroy River. In twelve months Hubbard examined every grass specimen in the Queensland Herbarium stimulating Stan Blake's interest in grasses and sedges.

He rose to the position of the Keeper of the Herbarium and Library at Kew in 1957. Later he was appointed as Deputy Director of Kew Gardens. He retired in 1965. He was awarded the Linnean Gold Medal for his work as a grass taxonomist. Acacia hubbardiana Pedley (1969) and Digitaria hubbardii Henrard were named in his honour.

Source: Everist, S.L. (1981) and Hall, N. (1984). Published in Port Curtis District Flora and Early Botanists by G.N. Batianoff and H.A. Dillewaard (1988), Botany Branch, Queensland Herbarium.