Reginald Edward Vaughan OBE FRIC (27 October 1895 – 29 April 1987) was a British botanist who lived and worked in Mauritius from 1923.
Biography Vaughan was born in Wooburn, Buckinghamshire, 27 October 1895, the son of Herbert and Jane Vaughan, who lived at Dell House, Wooburn.FHL Film Number:1967108 Reference ID:pr240/1/16 item 3p62 cn596 Ancestry.com. England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538–1975The National Archives of the UK (TNA); Kew, Surrey, England; Census Returns of England and Wales, 1911. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA) Series RG14, 1911. Ancestry.com. 1911 England Census [database on-line]. He went to Imperial College where he was awarded a second class degree in chemistry in 1920. In 1916, at the age of 20, he enlisted in the Royal Engineers as a Pioneer and served until he was discharged, September 1918, when he was appointed Temporary Second Lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery.Reginald Edward Vaughan. Regimental Number:146192. The National Archives; Kew, Surrey, England; War Office: Soldiers’ Documents, First World War Wo363. Ancestry.com. UK, British Army World War I Service Records, 1914–1920 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.
He first worked at Harper Adams College but in 1923 he moved to Mauritius where he worked as a chemistry teacher at the Royal College Curepipe.Departure Date:19 Dec 1923. Port of Departure:London, England. Destination Port:Mauritius. Ship Name:Gaika. Ancestry.com. UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890–1960 [database on-line]. Original data:Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors: Outwards Passenger Lists. BT27. The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, England. His interest in botany developed and from 1934 he collaborated with Paul Octave Wiehe on botanical exploration and conservative, seeing the creation of 16 nature reserves between 1951 and 1974, and in 1959 the creation of the Mauritius Herbarium. The herbarium collection moved from Pamplemousses to Réduit, within the Mauritius Sugar Industry Research Institute (MSIRI) which he had created, with Wiehe, in 1946. He was director of the Mauritius Institute from 1946 to 1960. He was the curator of the Herbarium from 1960 until 1969, when he retired. Together with Joseph Guého, his assistant, he added to the collections in the herbarium. He continued to work on the flora and helped initiate the Flore des Mascareignes project.
During World War II from 1943 he worked as the chief censor for the Bureau of Information.
He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society on 8 December 1932, obtained his Ph.D. in 1934 from the University of LondonUniversity of London; London, England; University of London Student Records 1836-1936, Senate House Library
Year Range: 1934. Ancestry.com. and later a D.Sc. He was awarded an O.B.E. in the 1950 Birthday Honours "For public services in Mauritius." He was President of the Societe Royale des Arts et des Sciences de l'ile Maurice 1957–1959.
In 1921 he married Gwendolin Kerby (1897–1938) in Amersham.General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 3a; Page: 2359. Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916–2005 [database on-line] They had a daughter Phyllis, born 1923 in Maidenhead.General Register Office; United Kingdom; Reference: Volume 2c, Page 760. Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007 [database on-line]. His second wife, Elsie, died in 1973.Probate 1975. https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/ He is recorded returning to England in 1932, 1936, and 1940, accompanied by Phyllis, on his own in 1944, and then with Elsie in 1949.The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England; Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors: Inwards Passenger Lists.; Class: BT26; Piece: 1000, 1107, 1191, 1208, 1244. Ancestry.com
He died in Mauritius on 29 April 1987.Probate 1988. https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/
Albizia vaughanii Brenan, Eugenia vaughanii J.Guého & A.J.Scott, Syzygium vaughanii J.Guého & A.J.Scott, Croton vaughanii Croizat, Hyophorbe vaughanii L.H.Bailey, Myonima vaughanii Verdc., are some of the species named in his honour.
The RE Vaughan Building, MSIRI Compound, Reduit, Mauritius is named after him.
Selected publications
Studies on the Vegetation of Mauritius: I. A Preliminary Survey of the Plant Communities. R. E. Vaughan, P. O. Wiehe 1937. Journal of Ecology, 25(2):289–343
The grasses of Mauritius and Rodriguez. C.E. Hubbard, R.E. Vaughan. (1940). Ed. Waterlow.
Nature reserves in Mauritius, Reginald Edward Vaughan 1957, Tananarive
Conservation of vegetation in Africa south of the Sahara: Mauritius & Rodriguez. Vaughan, R. E. Acta Phytogeogr. Suec., 54, 1968. pp. 265–72.
Annotated bibliography of Mascarene plant life: including the useful and ornamental plants of the region, covering the period 1609–1990. David H. Lorence, R.E. Vaughan. (1992). National Tropical Botanical Garden. 274 pp. ISBN 091580915X
References