30 Facts About Robert Wight

Robert Wight employed Indian botanical artists to illustrate many plants collected by himself and Indian collectors he trained.

Robert Wight was born at Milton, East Lothian, the ninth of twelve siblings.

Robert Wight was educated at home until the age of eleven after which he studied at the Royal High School in Edinburgh.

Robert Wight obtained a surgeon's diploma in 1816 from the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh.

Robert Wight trained at Edinburgh University, studying botany under Daniel Rutherford in 1816, and graduating MD in 1818.

In 1819 Robert Wight went to India as an Assistant Surgeon in the service of the East India Company, serving initially with the 21st Madras Native Infantry.

Robert Wight was redeployed to regimental duties as garrison surgeon at Nagapattinam.

In 1831, shortly after having been promoted to Surgeon, Robert Wight took a three-year leave to Britain 'on private affairs'.

Robert Wight's additions came too late and he had to identify, curate and distribute the collection on his own but Robert Wight was fortunate to enlist the help of his old school and university friend George Arnott Walker-Arnott, who had given up a legal career and was working as a free-lance botanist in Scotland.

Shortly thereafter came the Contributions to the Flora of India under Robert Wight's name, containing accounts of the families Asclepiadaceae, Cyperaceae and Compositae.

Robert Wight returned to India in 1834 as a full surgeon in the 33rd Regiment of Native Infantry at Bellary.

Malcolmson, and Robert Wight was to report on agriculture and cotton.

Robert Wight showed that the new cottons could be grown, though this was difficult without irrigation.

Robert Wight was an early member of the Madras Agri-Horticultural Society, whose garden, next to the Cathedral in Madras, acted as the city's botanical garden.

Robert Wight acted as the Society's secretary at various times between 1839 and 1841, and edited a volume of its Proceedings in 1842.

In India Robert Wight published numerous letters and short papers in the Madras Journal of Literature and Science, in the various publications of the Calcutta-based Agricultural and Society of India and the Calcutta Journal of Natural History.

Robert Wight's lasting achievement was the series of illustrated publications on Indian botany.

Robert Wight began to employ the artist Rungiah, who was employed from possibly as early as 1826 to around 1845, and thereafter employed Govindoo.

Robert Wight named a genus of orchid, Govindooia, after Govindoo, but could not do so for Rungiah, as a genus Rungia already existed, described by Nathaniel Wallich for an Indian plant named after the German chemist Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge.

Robert Wight left India after retiring from service in March 1853.

Robert Wight returned to England with poor health and difficulty in hearing.

Robert Wight returned to England and bought the 66-acre estate of Grazeley Lodge near Reading.

In 1865 Robert Wight was a member of the committee that helped Edward John Waring edit the Pharmacopoeia of India and in 1866 he read a paper on On the Phenomenon of Vegetation in the Indian Spring to the International Botanical Congress in London.

In October 1871, shortly before his death Robert Wight gave his best specimens to Kew, which included the types of the species described in his publications.

Robert Wight married Rosa Harriet, the third daughter of a senior Madras surgeon, Lacey Gray Ford in St George's Cathedral, Madras, on 17 January 1838.

Robert Wight died on 26 May 1872 at Grazeley Lodge and was buried in the parish church of Grazeley where he had long been a churchwarden.

Robert Wight was elected a Fellow of the Linnaean Society in 1832 and, in the same year, as a member of the oldest scientific society in Europe, the Academia Caesarea Leopoldina-Carolinae Naturae Curiosorum.

Robert Wight corresponded with the leading botanists of his time including George Arnott Walker-Arnott, Sir William Hooker, Joseph Hooker, William Griffith, Nathaniel Wallich, George Bentham, Christian Gottfried Nees von Esenbeck, John Forbes Royle, John Lindley, Carl Philipp von Martius, John Stevens Henslow, William Munro and Robert Brown.

In recognition of his contribution to Botany, Robert Wight is one of the most highly commemorated of all Indian botanists.

Robert Wight named many plants after his botanical collaborators in India and Europe.