William Rickatson Dykes
| William Rickatson Dykes | |
|---|---|
| Born |
4 November 1877 Bayswater, London |
| Died | 1 December 1925 (aged 48) Woking, Surrey |
| Residence | Great Britain |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Wadham College, Oxford |
| Known for |
Taxonomy Botany |
| Awards | Veitch Memorial Medal (1924), Victoria Medal of Honor (1925) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Botany |
| Academic advisors | Sir Michael Foster |
| Influenced | George H.M Lawrence, Georgi Rodionenko, and Brian Mathew |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Dykes |
William Rickatson Dykes (4 November 1877 – 1 December 1925) was an amateur botanist who became an expert in the field of iris breeding and wrote several influential books on the subject. He was also interested in tulips, amaryllis, and other plants.
William Rickatson Dykes was born on 4 November 1877 at Bayswater in London, the second son of Alfred Dykes. He was a clever student and a talented athlete who attended City of London School and then Wadham College, Oxford. In 1900, he obtained an M.A. in classics. Later he received Licence-ès-lettres from the University of Paris (Sorbonne).
Between 1903 and 1919, Dykes was a schoolmaster at Charterhouse School in Godalming. He taught Greek and Latin and occasionally football.
While studying at Oxford, Dykes had met Sir Michael Foster, who instilled in him a passion for studying irises. After he moved to Godalming, he created a large garden to grow irises. When Foster died in 1907, Dykes received the loan of a large collection of Foster's notes for a comprehensive study of irises that he had been unable to complete before his death. Dykes took over this study and completed it, a process that formed the basis for his first book, Irises (1909), a volume in the series Present-Day Gardening. A smallish book, it focuses on the decorative uses of the iris as a garden plant but also contains plenty of scientific information.
By 1910, Dykes was being interviewed by Garden Life magazine as an expert amateur and recognised authority on iris cultivation. In his own garden, he had developed an extensive collection embracing most known species. He had several bulb frames.
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