Meirion Thomas

Prof Meirion Thomas FRS FRSE (1894–1977) was a 20th-century Welsh botanist and plant physiologist.

Life

He was born on 28 December 1894 at 2 Menai Terrace in Bangor, Wales, the son of John Thomas, Vice Principal of Bangor Normal College, and his wife, Catherine Ann Roberts. His secondary education was at Friars School, Bangor from 1906 to 1912. He began studies at Cambridge University but this was interrupted by the war.

In the First World War he served with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. He then won a commission in the South Wales Borderers. He was then transferred to the Gas Warfare section, and rose to the rank of Captain.

He returned to Cambridge in 1919, studying Botany. He graduated BA in 1921 and MA in 1925. From 1924 he worked at the Armstrong College in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, first as a lecturer in botany and plant physiology, rising to senior lecturer and reader. He served as a Captain in the Officer Training Corps.[1]

In 1945 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were John Heslop-Harrison, Alfred Hobson, Ernest Dunlop and Robert Wheldon.[2] In 1949 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, his canditaure citation referring to his researches on catabolic processes in plants.[3]

In 1946 he was created Professor of Botany at King's College in Newcastle. He retired in 1961 but was part of the college's push for university status (which was obtained in 1963) thereafter being known as Newcastle University.

He died on 5 April 1977 at Bryn Crug near Tywyn in Wales. He was unmarried and had no children.

Publications
  • Plant Physiology
  • Studies in Zymosis

References
  1. "Botany at the University of Durham: Prof. Meirion Thomas". Nature. 158 (4018): 613–614. 1 November 1946. Bibcode:1946Natur.158S.613.. doi:10.1038/158613c0.
  2. Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2018-11-07.
  3. "Fellow details". Royal Society. Retrieved 7 November 2018.


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