Collection K/PP65 - GATES, Professor Reginald Ruggles (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).