10am Registration and tea and coffee

Helianthus annuus

11am “Flora Indica: uncovering hidden stories of Kew’s Indian botanical drawings.” Dr Henry Noltie (1975, Plant Sciences), curator and taxonomist at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh from 1986 to 2017, will give an insight into an exhibition he is curating with Sita Reddy on a selection of 50 drawings from the collections of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

and

Stephen Cockburn in the 1960s

“A Univ Botanist in Borneo and other unlikely stories.” Peter Cockburn MA FRPSL (1964, Plant Sciences) will relate his experiences in Malaysia (formerly Malaya) and in Sabah, the eastern most state of Malaysia, in the 1960s.

12.30pm Pre-luncheon drinks

1pm Luncheon

2.45pm Musical performance

3.30pm Finish

Dr Henry Noltie

Dr Henry Noltie

After his botany degree from Univ, and a degree in Museums Studies from Leicester, Henry Noltie joined the staff of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 1986. His work there initially involved curating exhibitions in the Garden’s eighteenth-century gallery Inverleith House. He then spent twelve years as a taxonomist working on monocotyledons (especially grasses and sedges) for the Flora of Bhutan, during which he became interested in the history of the Garden’s outstanding Indian collections – both herbarium specimens and drawings made for Scottish East India Company surgeons by Indian artists.

From 2000 until retirement in 2017 he produced a series of books and exhibitions on three of the major Indian collections, and since then has continued with similar work cataloguing the rich and unstudied collections at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and the Natural History Museum.

Peter Cockburn

Peter Cockburn MA FRPSL

Peter came up to Univ in 1964 after schooling at Brighton College and took a degree in Botany.

He went on Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) to Malaya and worked on the Tree Flora of Malaya under Dr Tim Whitmore a Columbo Plan expert. In 1969 he accepted an offer of the job of Forest Botanist in Sabah, the eastern most State of Malaysia. In both of these appointments collecting tropical tree species from the Rainforest was an essential part of his work.

After ten years this idyllic occupation came to an end although visits on specific projects continued in various parts of the tropical world for several years. Settling down in 1981 he developed an export market for pharmaceutical equipment and packaging, for a small British company which lasted the next 25 years.

Subsequent to this professional employment Peter, whose hobby was always philately, was elected the President of the Royal Philatelic Society London, the most prestigious society of its type in the world. This collecting interest has taken him and his wife of 54 years to many countries to exhibit his collections and to assist in the development of philately worldwide.

Peter has two daughters (one ex-Univ) and four grandchildren.