Person
Beard, John Stanley (1916 - 2011)
AM
- Born
- 15 February 1916
Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom - Died
- 17 February 2011
Perth, Western Australia, Australia - Occupation
- Botanic gardens director, Forester and Plant geographer
Summary
John Beard, who trained as a forester, spent the first 24 years of his career in the West Indies and Natal, South Africa. In Natal, as President of the Botanical Society of Natal, he had oversight of the botanic garden in Pietermaritzburg. This engendered an interest in botanic gardens and led him to apply for the position as Director of the King's Park and Botanic Garden in Perth. As the first Director, he successfully contended with inadequate facilities and a lack of trained staff. Although King's Park was founded to specialise in the study, display and cultivation of Western Australia native plants, Beard found an absence of information that would assist him. He set about filling this gap: the first result was the publication of Descriptive catalogue of West Australian plants (1965). In 1963 he initiated an extensive program of surveys which set the standards for understanding regional floristic zones and biogeographical areas for the whole state. The outcome was a series of 24 books, with maps, under the title Vegetation survey of Western Australia (1972 - 1980). These were published after Beard retired to Perth havng completing his term as Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney.
Details
Chronology
- 1937
- Education - BA, School of Forestry, University of Oxford
- 1937 - 1947
- Career position - Forester, British Colonial Service, Trinidad and Windward and Leeward Islands
- 1945
- Education - PhD, University of Oxford
- 1947 - 1961
- Career position - Estates Research Officer, Natal Tanning and Extract Co. Ltd, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
- 1955
- Career position - President, Botanical Society of Natal
- 1961 - 1970
- Career position - Director, Kings Park and Botanic Garden, Perth
- 1970 - 1972
- Career position - Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney
- 1972
- Life event - Retired
- 1983
- Award - Medal of the Royal Society of Western Australia
- 2003
- Award - Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to botany and ecology through the recording and mapping of plant vegetation types in Western Australia
Related entries
Published resources
Books
- Beard, J. S., Vegetation survey of Western Australia: the vegetation of the Kalgoorlie area (...) map and explanatory memoir 1:250.000 series (Perth: Vegmap Publications, 1972), 24 pp. Details
- Beard, J. S., Plant life of Western Australia (Kenthurst, N.S.W: Kangaroo Press, 1990), 319 pp. Details
Edited Books
- Beard, J. S. ed., Descriptive catalogue of West Australian plants (Sydney: Society for Growing Australian Plants, 1965), 122 pp. Details
Journal Articles
- Beard, J. S., 'The Botanists Diels and Pritzel in Western Australia: a Centenary', Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, 82 (4) (2001), 143-147. Details
- Dixon, Kingsley W., 'Celebration of a life in botany: Dr John Stanley Beard - on the occasion of his 90th birthday', Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, 89 (3) (2006), 93-7. Details
See also
- Aitken, Richard and Looker, Michael eds, The Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2002), 700 pp. p.80. Details
- Fagg, Murray, 'Beard, John Stanley (1916 - 2011)', Australian Plant Collectors and Illustrators, Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria (CHAH), 2010, https://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/beard--john.html. Details
Helen Cohn
Created: 31 March 2026