Dundee Howff Conservation Group SCIO

Here is a little story of William Gardiner – Botanist, Dundee. The information was taken from The British Association, Dundee, 1912 A Handbook and Guide to Dundee and Districts and the burial books for the Howff and the 1832 map of the Howff

Within the book there is a section on The Mosses of Forfarshire and towards the end of this chapter the author gives mention of ‘William Gardiner, of Dundee – an earnest student and lover of nature. With limited opportunities, and not too robust health, he devoted himself to the study of botany, especially flora of his own district. He wrote many papers on natural history, and published “Lessons on British Mosses,” “Botanical Rambles in Braemar” and finally, “The Flora of Forfarshire”. William died in 1852 at the age of forty-three and it is understood that he was buried somewhere in ‘The Howff’ but the spot is unmarked.

All of Williams’ botanical collections had to be sold to look after his orphan son (James Edward Smith Gardiner) and were purchased by C.C. Babington of Cambridge. Charles Cardale Babington was a botanist and archaeologist and overlapped at Cambridge with Charles Darwin. Babington was later Chair of Botany at the University of Cambridge. This just shows what tremendous work William must have produced.

In the previous text William was believed to buried in the Howff in an unknown & unmarked grave. After doing a little digging (pardon the pun) in the burial registers we can now reveal that he lived and died at Spence’s Close in the Overgate (no far from the city churches) his job title was ‘botanist’ he deid on 21st June 1852 from typus fever and was buried on 24th June 1852 at stone location 419-C. The cost of his burial was 6 shillings and 6 pence. William was married to Elizabeth Smith, who died on 24th May 1850 and was buried in at stone location 491-A (same location as William), she died of consumption aged just 37, her burial also cost 4 shillings and 6 pence. On 29th December 1843, she gave birth to William who unfortunately died of nervous fever on 9th January 1844 (just 12 days old) and was buried in lair 455-A at a cost of 3 shillings and 6 pence

For those interested there is a short video made by University of Dundee (see link below) that gives us more insight to the man himself. Also, to the rear of the Overgate shopping centre near the entrance to the multi-storey carpark and not far from his last resting place there is an area called William Gardiner Square with a beautiful mural painted onto the wall showing flowers and bugs

https://learningspaces.dundee.ac.uk/dundeeuniculture/2020/06/04/william-gardiner-and-the-flora-of-forfarshire-video/

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL17794093W/Flora_of_Forfarshire

As mentioned in the previous post, we are celebrating Innes Duffus and all his work for the history of Dundee and in The Howff in particular.
If you have the time, this video is worth a watch.

https://youtu.be/VZhRDBSR3R4

Dundee Howff Conservation Group SCIO A conservation group that aims to preserve memorials within the grounds of Dundee Howff Cemetery.