Robert Lloyd Praeger

One of the most productive of Ireland’s natural historians was Robert Lloyd Praeger. Son of William Praeger of the Hague, a linen merchant, and Maria Patterson, daughter of Robert Patterson of Belfast, he was born 1st August 1865 in Holywood, County Down. His interest in nature was aroused when, as a child, he took part in the activities of the Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club. After graduating from engineering from Queen’s College (now Queen’s University), Belfast, he began his career as a civil engineer with Belfast City and District Water Commissioners. He read his first geological paper in 1886 and subsequently made many contributions to Irish quaternary geology. Praeger was elected Member of the Royal Irish Academy 1891 and was one of the founders and editor of the Irish Naturalist.

In 1893 he joined the staff of the National Library in Dublin and in 1920 became chief librarian. Praeger retired at fifty-nine and granted full pension. On the last day of his service he set out for the Canary Islands to study the Sempervivum genus. His Flora of the County Armagh (1893) was followed by many other publications, including surveys of Lambay and Clare Island, the flora of the west of Ireland, and books of essays and reminiscences.

Twice president Dublin Field Club, he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland in 1940 and became its president in 1949–50. Praeger became Associate of the Linnean Society in 1947 and was one of the founder-members of the Geographical Society of Ireland, becoming its first president in 1937, and also first secretary and president of the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland. Praeger was President, Royal Irish Academy in 1931 and became an honorary life member of the Botanical Society of the British Isles in 1951.

The results of two large-scale surveys, on the Sedum and Sempervivum, were published by the Royal Horticultural Society and rewarded with medals. The Botanist in Ireland (1934) was the last of his major scientific studies of Irish flora. The Natural History of Ireland was published in 1950. To the general reader his best-known book is The Way That I Went (1937), a delightful account of his travels around Ireland. Robert Lloyd Praeger died in Belfast in May 1953.