Gates, Reginald Ruggles, 1882-1962, anthropologist, biologist, botanist and geneticist

Person

Gates, Reginald Ruggles, 1882-1962, anthropologist, biologist, botanist and geneticist

1882-1962

Born Middleton, Nova Scotia, 1882; educated Middleton High School; BSc, Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick, 1899-1903; McGill University, 1903-1904; Vice-Principal of Middleton High School, 1904; Demonstrator in Botany, McGill University, 1905; research at Woods Hole, Massachusetts 1906-1908; Senior Fellow and graduated PhD, University of Chicago, 1908; first major visit to Europe (France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Holland and England), 1910; moved to England, 1911; research in laboratory of Farmer, Imperial College of Science, 1911; awarded Mendel Medal, 1911; Married Dr Marie Charlotte Carmichael Stopes, 1911 (marriage annulled 1916); Lecturer in Biology, St Thomas's Hospital, London, 1912-1914; Huxley Medal and Prize, Imperial College, University of London, 1913; Lecturer in Cytology, Bedford College, London, 1912, 1914 and on Heredity in Relation to Cytology, Oxford University, 1914; moved to USA, 1914; Associate Professor in Zoology, University of California, [1915]; worked at the New York botanical garden [1915-1916]; returned to England and enlisted in the Artists' Rifles, 1916; Instructor in aerial gunnery, Royal Flying Corps (Corporal), 1917-1918; Reader in Botany, University of London King's College, 1919-1921; Professor of Botany, University of London King's College, 1921-1942; Society of Experimental Biology, Secretary, 1923-1928; Amazon expedition, 1925; expedition to Kola Peninsula tundra and inspecting Russian plant breeding stations, 1926-1927; Canadian Arctic expedition (the Mackenzie River) recording blood group frequencies amongst the Inuit and indigenous Canadian population, 1928, South African expedition, making photographic records of South African peoples 1929; married Jane Williams, 1929 (marriage dissolved); Consultative Council, Eugenics Society; Royal Anthropological Institute, Council, 1927-1933, 1935-1937; Council, Linnean Society, 1928-1932, Fellow of the Royal Society, 1931; Vice-President, 1931-1932; Council Royal Microscopical Society, Secretary, 1928-1930, President, 1930-1932, Honorary Fellow, 1951; delegate from British and American Associations to Indian Science Congress, Calcutta (Kolkata), 1937, also travelled in India during this time collecting botanic material and photographing indigenous jungle-dwelling people; De Lamar Lectures at Johns Hopkins University on Human Heredity and Society, 1932; Lecture tour in American Universities, 1940-1942; Emeritus Professor, King's College London, 1943; Fellow of King's College; Lowell Lectures on Human Heredity, 1944; Research Fellow in Biology, Harvard University, 1946-1950; gave series of lectures at Howard University, Washington DC, 1947, but left after petitioning by academic staff on the grounds of his being racist; Honorary President of 7th International Botanical Congress, Stockholm, 1950 and of 8th Botanical Congress, Paris, 1954, while in Sweden visited Lapland to study Arctic vegetation and the Lapps; expedition to Cuban to study mixed race families, 1952; visit to North Africa, 1953; expedition to Mexico to study mixed race people, 1953; expedition to Eastern Canada to study indigenous Canadians, 1953; expedition to Japan to study Ainu people, racial genetics of the Japanese, and mixed race Japanese children, 1954; anthropological studies in South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, 1955; married Laura Greer, 1955; studies in Australia, especially of mixed race indigenous Australians, 1958, studies in New Guinea, New Zealand, 1958; studies in India, including the Kurumbas and the Kanikars in South India and the Asurs, Bihors and Muria Gonds in North India, 1959; Far East, 1960; co-founded controversial anthropology journal Mankind Quarterly, 1960; Anthropological Studies in Iran, 1961; accused of 'scientific racism' by anthropologist Juan Comas, 1961; Guest of Indian Statistical Institute, 1961-1962; died 1962.

Publications (selection only): The mutation factor in evolution, with particular reference to Oenothera (Macmillan & Co, New York, 1915) Heredity and eugenics (Constable & Co, London, 1923) A botanist in the Amazon valley (Witherby, London, 1927) Heredity and man (Constable & Co, London, 1929) Human genetics 2 vols(Macmillan & Co, London and New York, 1946) Human ancestry (Harvard University Press, 1948) Pedigrees of Negro families (Blakiston & Co, Philadelphia and Toronto, 1949) Genetic linkage in man (W Junk, The Hague, 1955) Taxonomy and genetics of oenothera : forty years study in the cytology and evolution of the Onagraceae (W Junk, The Hague, 1958).

0100 KCLCA

Final

Partial

Biography updated, 2023, to include details of accusations of racism made about Ruggles Gates in 1947.

Further information is available at the National Archives (F43246)