Botanist and specialist on heather

Born: April 28, 1923;

Died: June 19, 2018

PROFESSOR Charles Gimingham, who has died aged 95, was a distinguished botanist who specialised for much of his career in one of Scotland’s best known plants – heather.

He was an authority on the ling heather, scientifically known a Calluna vulgaris, and was closely associated with the management of the fire and grazing that governs its growth. As professor of botany at Aberdeen University he brought authority to his research and advice on the environment. One of his most important research programmes was carried out on the management and conservation of the Muir of Dinnet near Ballater in Aberdeenshire.

He developed an intense research programme of research on the conservation of the Muir of Dinnet and in 1950 it was one of the first sites to be identified as a possible National Nature Reserve.

Catriona Reid, reserve manager of Muir of Dinnet, told The Herald, ‘‘This habitat is unique in the UK and also forms part of the Special Area of Conservation. It requires a 16-year burning cycle to maintain the habitat in good condition - and support some rare moths that live here.

"It was Professor Gimingham’s work that discovered that the 16-year cycle was the best way to manage this habitat – and we still work to that burning cycle to this day.’’

Professor Gimingham was a pioneer in the protection of the countryside. As far back as 1955 he led a scientific group to advise on the most beneficial manner of heather burning and its impact on soil fertility. This led to greater preservation of the moors and in turn to the improvement of local economies: heather supports many sporting activities – red grouse shooting, rare wild life and hill farming.

Charles Henry Gimingham was born in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, where his father was an eminent entomologist and director of the Ministry of Agriculture’s Plant Pathology Laboratory. He attended Gresham’s School, Norfolk, and won a scholarship to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, graduating with a first in natural sciences in 1944.

After a year at Imperial College London, he came north to Aberdeen, writing his PhD in 1948 and was appointed a lecturer in the botany department before being awarded a personal chair in botany in 1969. He became head of department and Regius Professor of Botany in 1981.

He was much admired and respected by colleagues at the university and by generations of students. On field trips he would muck in with everyone and was often seen knee-deep in bogs or crawling around inspecting a rare specimen. Such was their respect for him his research students donned T-shirts emblazoned with, “Prof Gim Rules OK”.

In the forward to Heaths and Moorland: Cultural Landscapes, a book published in his honour, Magnus Magnusson wrote that the book was ‘‘dedicated to honouring the life’s work of a living legend.’’ In the book Gimingham wrote, “during the progress of nearly 50 years of heathland ecology there has been one very major change in perception.

"At the beginning of this period it seemed that there was little threat to heaths and moors because they were widespread in Britain, but it is now realised they are fast disappearing throughout the west European heath region, including south England.”

Throughout his career he cogently argued that poor management and industrial pollution were the main culprits for this deterioration of heaths and moors. With his published works (notably, Ecology in the Highlands) he refocused the attention of both ecologists and politicians on conservation, industrial modernisation and a community’s management of its own affairs.

Professor Gimingham adopted an informed and enlightened attitude to conservation passionately supporting the preservation of wildlife in the barren moors of Scotland. He was much involved in the creation in 2003 of the Cairngorms National Park and remained a life-long member of the Cairngorms Club.

His renown was recognised worldwide and Professor Gimingham was often asked to provide advice on environmental matters – especially in Africa. He was awarded an OBE in 1990, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1961 and made an honorary member of the British Ecological Society.

He served on the National Trust of Scotland’s Mar Lodge Committee, the North East Regional Board of Scottish Natural Heritage and was president of the Heather Trust in 2004. On his 90th birthday the Trust toasted him as, ‘‘the founder of much of our knowledge of heathland ecology, and the man who inspired several generations of ecologists.’’

A modest man of much charm and wit, Professor Gimingham was a keen hillwalker and a student of the culture and traditions of Japan. In 1948 he was married to Elizabeth Caroline Baird in Aberdeen’s St Machar’s Cathedral by her father, the minister of the kirk; Professor Gimingham went on to become its longest-serving elder. He is survived by his wife and their three daughters.

ALASDAIR STEVEN