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Description area
Dates of existence
History
Reginald Rose-Innes was born in South Africa in 1915. His interest in botany led him to complete a Masters in Ecology at Rhodes University in Grahamstown. He went on to study in Austin at the University of Texas and also spent time studying in California from 1939 under the American Ecologist, Frederick E Clements. During this time Rose-Innes travelled extensively in America and a large part of the photographs in the collection are from this period.
In the 1940s Rose-Innes briefly served in the South African Navy, before undertaking employment at the University of Witwatersrand under the directorship of Professor John F V Phillips. During this time he carried out research into plague in Namibia and the Kalahari Desert.
In 1954 Rose-Innes became a research lecturer at the University College of the Gold Coast alongside Professor Phillips who had become Professor of Agriculture at the institution. The University became known as the University of Ghana following the independence of the Gold Coast in 1957. Rose-Innes continued to work in Ghana until the late 1960s and during this time sent many grass specimens to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew also hold specimens sent from Somalia in October 1982. The South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria, hold specimens sent from Ghana in October 1957, and The Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium at Florida State University hold specimen collected in Texas.
In the late 1960s Rose-Innes became employed by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) under the United Nations. He remained in Ghana, and was based in Tamale, where he was able to continue his detailed research into grassland ecology.
After several years with the FAO Rose-Innes worked for the Ministry of Overseas Surveys based in Tolworth in the UK. During this time Rose-Innes carried out research assignments in Nigeria, Belize, Bangladesh and Somalia.
Professor Francis K Fianu, a former student of Rose-Innes at the University of Ghana, and later a Professor of the same department, attempted to establish a Grassland Herbarium at the University in the name of Reginald Rose-Innes in the 1980s and 1990s. Sadly there were insufficient funds to make this possible. However, Fianu remembers Rose-Innes as a remarkably thorough scientist whose 'knowledge of Ghana Grasses was beyond compare'.