William Grant Craib

Craib was born in Banff, Aberdeenshire in northern Scotland on 10 March 1882 and he was educated at Banff Academy and Fordyce Academy.^[4] He entered Aberdeen University as an Art student but due to problems with his eyes he left and worked for a while on a ship as an engineer.^[4] When his eyes were better, he returned to Aberdeen University and took a Master of Arts degree.^[4] He was ready to study for his Bachelor of Science degree, but he took an opportunity to take a temporary post at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Calcutta.^[4]

While in Calcutta he became the curator of the Herbarium and made in the North Cachar Hills a large collection of plants, including a number of new species which he later described and named.^[4] In 1899 he was offered a job as Assistant for India at Kew Gardens in London, a role in which he contributed his knowledge of Indian and South West Asian botany.^[4]

In 1915 he was offered and took the post as a lecturer in forest botany and Indian trees at Edinburgh.^[4] In 1920 he was appointed Regius Professor of Botany at Aberdeen University.^[4] As well as his teaching work and training research students, he studied with his pupils Siamese flora on which he wrote many books.^[4] In 1921 at a meeting of the British Association, Craib lost one of his legs in a serious accident.^[4]

He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1920. His proposers were Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour, Sir David Prain, Sir Thomas Hudson Beare, and James Hartley Ashworth.^[5]

During his vacations for university, he worked in the Herbarium at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew in London, particularly on the flora of Siam.^[4] It was during one of his stays at Kew that he became ill and died on 1 September 1933 aged 51,^[4] and is buried in Richmond Cemetery.

Craib is commemorated in the genera Craibiodendron and Craibia, as well as a number of species.