Eric Ashby, Baron Ashby

The Right Honourable
Eric Ashby, Baron Ashby
FRS
The Right Honourable Eric Ashby, Baron Ashby FRS
	Ashby in June 1958.
Member of the House of Lords; Lord Temporal
	In office; 6 July 1973 – 22 October 1992; Life Peerage
5th Chancellor of the Queen's University Belfast
	In office; 1970–1983
Preceded by	Sir Tyrone Guthrie
Succeeded by	Sir Rowland Wright
Personal details
Born	Eric Ashby; 24 August 1904; Leytonstone, Essex, England
Died	22 October 1992 (aged 88)
Spouse	Elizabeth Helen Margaret Farries
Alma mater	City of London School ; Royal College of Science

Eric Ashby, Baron Ashby, FRS^[1] (24 August 1904 – 22 October 1992) was a British botanist and educator.

Born in Leytonstone in Essex, he was educated at the City of London School and the Royal College of Science, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science. He was then demonstrator at the Imperial College from 1926 to 1929. In 1929, he received a Harkness Fellowship to the University of Chicago.^[2] Ashby was a lecturer at Imperial College from 1931 to 1935, and at the University of Bristol from 1935 to 1938.^{[citation needed]}

Marriage

Ashby married Elizabeth Helen Margaret Farries, whom he met while they were working together on incineration techniques for measuring carbon in tissue. They had two children, Michael and Peter.

Career

In 1938, Ashby became professor of botany at the University of Sydney, a post he held until 1946. Between 1944 and 1945, he was Scientific Counsellor to Moscow. From 1947 to 1950, he held the Harrison Chair of Botany at the University of Manchester. According to Burges and Eden^[3]"His enthusiasm and flair for botany made Manchester one of the leading botanical schools in the United Kingdom".

From 1950 to 1959 he was president and vice-chancellor of Queen's University, Belfast. For the University of Cambridge, he was Master of Clare College, Cambridge from 1959 to 1975, and vice-chancellor from 1967 to 1969. From 1968 to 1974 he was Chairman of the Governors at Culford School; and between 1970 and 1973, he was chair of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. Ashby was knighted in 1956,^[4] and was created a life peer as Baron Ashby, of Brandon in the County of Suffolk on 6 July 1973.^[5]

Ashby was secretary of the Society for Experimental Biology from 1935 to 1938 and president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science from 1962 to 1963.^[6] He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1961.^[7]

In 1968, he received the Centenary Medal of the Royal Society of Tasmania and in 1973, he became president and chancellor of the Queen's University, Belfast. He was adviser to the British National Fruit Traders Association and a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).^[1] He was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Science) by the University of Bath in 1966.^[8]

References

^ ^a ^b Heslop-Harrison, J. (1995). "Eric Ashby, Baron Ashby, of Brandon, Suffolk, Kt. 24 August 1904-22 October 1992". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 41: 2–18. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1995.0001. S2CID 61942475.
^ Profile Archived 25 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine, royalsoced.org.uk; accessed 18 April 2016.
^ "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/50791. ISBN 9780198614111. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ "No. 40706". The London Gazette. 10 February 1956. p. 825.
^ "No. 46826". The London Gazette. 12 July 1973. p. 8057.
^ Leake, Chauncey D. (8 November 1963). "Meeting: British Association for the Advancement of Science". Science. 142 (3593): 688–689. doi:10.1126/science.142.3593.688. PMC 2524738. PMID 17815275. His presidential address to the BA was entitled Investment in man.
^ "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
^ Profile Archived 25 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine, bath.ac.uk; accessed 18 April 2016.

Academic offices
Preceded by Sir David Lindsay Keir	President and Vice-Chancellor of Queen's University Belfast 1950–1959	Succeeded by Dr Michael Grant
Preceded by Henry Thirkill	Master of Clare College, Cambridge 1958–1975	Succeeded by Robert Charles Oliver Matthews
Preceded by Arthur Armitage	Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 1967–1969	Succeeded by Owen Chadwick
Preceded by Sir Tyrone Guthrie	Chancellor of Queen's University Belfast 1970–1983	Succeeded by Sir Rowland Wright

[frs-1] Heslop-Harrison, J. (1995). "Eric Ashby, Baron Ashby, of Brandon, Suffolk, Kt. 24 August 1904-22 October 1992". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 41: 2–18. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1995.0001. S2CID 61942475.

[2] Profile Archived 25 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine, royalsoced.org.uk; accessed 18 April 2016.

[ODNB-3] "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/50791. ISBN 9780198614111. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

[4] "No. 40706". The London Gazette. 10 February 1956. p. 825.

[5] "No. 46826". The London Gazette. 12 July 1973. p. 8057.

[6] Leake, Chauncey D. (8 November 1963). "Meeting: British Association for the Advancement of Science". Science. 142 (3593): 688–689. doi:10.1126/science.142.3593.688. PMC 2524738. PMID 17815275. His presidential address to the BA was entitled Investment in man.

[AAAS-7] "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 25 April 2011.

[8] Profile Archived 25 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine, bath.ac.uk; accessed 18 April 2016.

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15th century	Thomas Ashwell Henry Stockton Nicholas de Swaffham Nicholas Gay William Millington John Roclyffe Thomas Stoyle William Uttyng William Smyth Edmund Conisborough Thomas Stoyle William Towne Thomas Tuppin John Riplingham John Camberton William Rawson William Stockdale John Dolman Henry Rudd John Smith John Smith Henry Babington
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Full-time	Sir David Williams Sir Alec Broers Dame Alison Richard Sir Leszek Borysiewicz Stephen Toope Deborah Prentice

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See also

References