A Tribute to Oliver Lathe Gilbert
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The Lichenologist 37(6): 467–475 (2005) 2005 The British Lichen Society doi:10.1017/S0024282905900042 Printed in the United Kingdom A tribute to Oliver Lathe Gilbert 7 September 1936–15 May 2005 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.33.42, on 02 Oct 2021 at 19:57:54, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0024282905900042 468 THE LICHENOLOGIST Vol. 37 Oliver Gilbert was a pioneer, an outstanding books on mountaineering and hill walking field botanist and inspirational scientist. He including the now classic ‘Big Walks’, worked in the broad fields of urban and ‘Classic Walks’ and ‘Wild Walks’ and the lichen ecology and had almost 40 years of award winning ‘Exploring the Far North teaching and research experience within West of Scotland’. His uncle was the universities. Above all he was very approach- mycologist Geoffrey Ainsworth, a former able, an excellent teacher and fun to be with. Director of the (former) International Oliver was a leading figure in the British Mycological Institute and author of several Lichen Society serving as BLS Bulletin classic texts on mycology. Oliver’s literary Editor (1980–89 except 1987), President talents, following a fine family tradition, (1976–77) and was a frequent Council likewise later excelled. Member. He was elected an Honorary After the war his family moved to Member in 1997 and received the prestig- Harpenden where he attended St Georges ious Ursula Duncan Award in January 2004. School. As St Georges did not offer ‘A’ level Oliver had an exceptional ability to find rare Biology, his parents sent him to Watford and interesting lichens and plant communi- Grammar School. A botany degree at Exeter ties that others had overlooked and he University was followed by a DIC in plant constantly challenged conventional wisdom pathology at Imperial College London. His that particular habitats were uninteresting, first job was as a deputy Warden at Malham especially urban habitats. His ecological Tarn Field Centre in Yorkshire where his ‘field craft’ skills were equally legendary. passion for walking, fell running and climb- Passion for field work and British Lichen ing blossomed. After work he would go Society field meetings led him to organize a rock climbing or run effortlessly for hours small grant awards scheme to stimulate over the fells. He joined Bingley Harriers others to attend field meetings and to sub- Athletics Club and in 1961 was in their small mit their results for publication in the BLS team of 3 runners which won the Yorkshire Bulletin. Three Peaks Race; Oliver’s time was an Oliver Gilbert’s interest in natural history astonishing 3 hours 9 minutes. His winner’s was kindled at the age of 4 during the war medal hangs on a nail in Winterscales years when evacuated to Borth y Gest in Fold, his family’s retreat on the slopes of North Wales where he would collect cater- Whernside. Oliver’s athletic prowess later pillars, butterflies and plants to identify. He proved to be of tremendous value in his was born in Lancaster in 1936, one hour and field-work. ten minutes earlier than his twin brother, Oliver joined the staff of Newcastle Christopher, who became a world authority University as a demonstrator in 1963 and on Chippendale Furniture and was described registered for a PhD. He was promoted to on his death as the most outstanding furni- Senior Demonstrator in 1965. It was in ture historian of his generation. His father, Newcastle-upon-Tyne that he carried out Frank Gilbert, was manager of Durham his pioneering doctoral studies on Biological Chemicals. His mother, Mrs Ruth Gilbert Indicators of Air Pollution (involving (1908–1984), was a prolific authoress writ- lichens, bryophytes, fungi, terrestrial algae, ing under the pen name of Ruth Ainsworth; phanerogams and invertebrates) in which his she wrote a well-known series of children’s detailed mapping studies of lichens and books about Rufty Tufty Golliwog, and bryophytes, as they came under increasing latterly, in the 1970s, authored such titles as pollution stress, led to the first zone scales ‘Three’s Company’, ‘The Mermaid’s Tale’ which correlated with SO2 levels. A fore- and ‘The Little Yellow Taxi’ as well as runner of the famous Hawksworth & Rose countless plays for children’s TV and stories scale, Oliver’s research led to a deeper under- for ‘Listen with Mother’. Oliver’s younger standing of how to produce and interpret brother, Richard, a former chemistry master lichen–air pollution maps. A simplified scale at Ampleforth College has written eleven he devised for use by school children was Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.33.42, on 02 Oct 2021 at 19:57:54, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0024282905900042 2005 Oliver Lathe Gilbert 469 successfully used throughout the UK in a Scottish Highlands. His modern accounts National Survey to map ‘our mucky air’. of the lichen flora of such internationally Oliver was the first person to recognize that important sites such as Ben Lawers, Ben morphological changes in lichens resulting Nevis, the Cairngorm Plateau, Caenlochan, in thallus deformities and stunting are useful St Kilda and Upper Teesdale, were among bioindicators of air pollution. He analysed the major ecological surveys of lichen veg- native lichens, mosses and transplants (liv- etation to be carried out in the 20th century. ing and dead) for sulphur and fluoride There were few habitats he did not person- concentrations along transects from point ally explore, though he is perhaps best sources. The high contents he recorded near known for his nationwide studies on the their inner distributional limits, led him to ecology of lichens growing on metalliferous suggest accumulation efficiency as a factor spoil, urban wasteland, mountains, chalk responsible for the acute sensitivity of cer- grasslands, freshwater habitats and maritime tain species. He was the first to highlight the sites. During this work he discovered 55 importance of pH in modifying the toxicity lichens new to Britain and he described of different sulphur species and to realize the several new taxa. These included Candelari- role of shelter/exposure when interpreting ella medians f. steepholmensis Gilbert, O.L. distribution data. His studies of historical (1981), Lecanora campestris subsp. dolomitica museum collections highlighted their value Gilbert, O.L. (1984) and Caloplaca suaedae as indicators of previous environmental con- Gilbert, O.L. & Coppins (2001). His vast ditions. His doctoral research was presented field experience helped him to recognize at the first ever European Congress on the several lichens as ecological morphs un- Influence of Air Pollution on Plants and worthy of formal taxonomic revision, includ- Animals held in Wageningen in 1968 and in ing Leucocarpopsis devensis G. Salisb, the the same year was awarded his PhD. His genus being monospecific. During his last interest in lichens continued to grow and his decade he undertook national surveys into subsequent long term monitoring studies the lichen flora of neglected habitats such as on Lobaria provided the first evidence for chalk grasslands, freshwater lakes and rivers the effects of acid rain on UK lichens. In and maritime soft cliffs. His work also high- addition to his sulphur dioxide work, he lighted the richness of man-made habitats, carried out some of the first serious studies such as urban wasteland and disused air- into the influence of fluorides and alkaline fields. He also compared the floras of dust on lichen communities. All large churchyards with those of the villages in cement manufacturers currently use his which they stand. lichen scale to monitor dust in their local Thirty-five years of ecological work was environment. He continued his interest engagingly summarized in his authoritative in air pollution work studying lichen re- book ‘Lichens’, published in the prestigious invasion during the period of decreasing New Naturalist series in 2000, the first mod- sulphur dioxide emissions. He coined the ern account of the lichen ecology of British term ‘lichen dawdlers’ for those species habitats, all of which had been studied per- which were slow to reinvade on account of sonally. It has been compared by reviewers their poor dispersal ability. to Sir Arthur Tansley’s classic work on Oliver Gilbert’s contribution to our higher plants The British Islands and their knowledge of the ecology and taxonomy of Vegetation. An invaluable reference work for UK lichens is unrivalled and encyclopaedic. both professionals and amateurs, it was a In parallel to his pollution studies, he insti- huge success as it sold out within a few gated pioneering work on the ecology of li- months. Oliver wrote more than 150 papers chen communities in various parts of Britain. on lichenology and was a major contributor He first prepared, in the North of England, to The Lichen Flora of Great Britain and his lichen flora of Northumberland, later Ireland, drawing on his vast personal experi- extending his interests to the Hebrides and ence. He is also co-author of the Lichen Red Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.33.42, on 02 Oct 2021 at 19:57:54, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0024282905900042 470 THE LICHENOLOGIST Vol. 37 Data Book for Britain. In 2004 his final book seminars, he wrote up much of this research was published: The Lichen Hunters. This is in a succinct form: as a book entitled The an account of his lichen exploration experi- Ecology of Urban Habitats published by ences, in which his enthusiasm for lichens, Chapman and Hall in 1989.