Person    | Male  Born 1743  Died 1820

Sir Joseph Banks

Categories: Science

From the British Library: "Joseph Banks was a prominent botanist, who served as President of the Royal Society, and advised on the development of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. He was a key figure in the British Empire’s expansion in, and exploitation of, the Pacific.

"Banks self-funded his journey to join James Cook’s first voyage to the Pacific in 1768. As well as collecting thousands of plant and animal specimens from across the globe, Banks and his party described and documented ‘other’ peoples they encountered. In a series of violent clashes during Cook’s voyage around Aotearoa (New Zealand), Banks was involved in the murder of at least one Māori warrior and was also party to the kidnapping of three Māori youths in which four other Māori were shot and killed.

"A decade after returning to England, Banks advocated for the establishment of a British prison colony in ‘New South Wales’, and later of the British colonial settlement of Australia, which has resulted in the ongoing displacement and oppression of the continent’s indigenous peoples. After his death, Banks’ collections were left to the British Museum, later passing in part to the British Library."

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Sir Joseph Banks

Commemorated ati

Botanists

Sir Joseph Banks, 1743-1820, President of the Royal Society, Robert Brown, 17...

Read More

Sir Joseph Banks - British Library

This bust is a 20th-century replica after Anne Seymour Damer, 1814.

Read More

Other Subjects

Admiral Robert Fitzroy

Admiral Robert Fitzroy

Hydrographer and meteorologist. Born Ampton Hall, Suffolk. He attended the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth and eventually took command of The Beagle, with Charles Darwin as a passenger. In his late...

Person, Science

2 memorials
Atlas Dyeworks

Atlas Dyeworks

The Simpson, etc. plaque commemorates the Dyeworks which were at Victory Place 1859 - 68. This page refers to that site but also refers to the Hackney Dyeworks to which Atlas expanded. The photo sh...

Building, Industry, Science

2 memorials
Sir Norman Lockyer

Sir Norman Lockyer

Astronomer and journal editor, born at Rugby. In 1865 Lockyer and his family moved to a house (no longer extant) near Swiss Cottage. Here, using a special spectroscope to examine the sun, he discov...

Person, Science

1 memorial
Dame Helen Gwynne-Vaughan

Dame Helen Gwynne-Vaughan

Prominent botanist and mycologist (fungi). Leader of the first women's army corps. Dame Helen Charlotte Isabella Gwynne-Vaughan, GBE   During WW1 she served in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps and...

Person, Armed Forces, Gender Issues, Science

1 memorial
Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

Scientist, artist, etc. - a polymath, the first "renaissance man". Born in Vinci, Italy (No? Really?). Died in France.

Person, Art, Science, Seriously Famous, Italy

3 memorials

Previously viewed

King Henry VI

King Henry VI

Born Windsor, son of Henry V. King of England 1422 - 1461 and 1470 - 1471. Madness and the Wars of the Roses explain the gap. Also King of France 1422 - 1453. As a child king there were regents unt...

Person, Royalty

3 memorials
Waitrose

Waitrose

Founded by Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose and David Taylor as a small Acton grocers, Waite, Rose and Taylor. Taylor left the business and in 1908 the name Waitrose was adopted. It was taken over by Joh...

Group, Commerce

3 memorials
William Caxton

William Caxton

Probably born Tenterden, Kent. Printer, in 1474, producing the first book printed in English "The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye". Died Westminster.

Person, Craft / Design, Journalism / Publishing

3 memorials
Rolling Stones

Rolling Stones

The line up has included: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Ian Stewart, Mick Taylor, Ronnie Wood. The first public performance with Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts...

Group, Music / songs, Seriously Famous

2 memorials
Sir Thomas Gresham

Sir Thomas Gresham

Created the Royal Exchange in 1566 where the Gresham family crest, a grasshopper, can be seen. Son of Richard Gresham who was a Lord Mayor of London but Thomas never was.

Person, Commerce, Politics & Administration

3 memorials