Henry Harold Welch Pearson (28 January 1870 – 3 November 1916) was a British-born South African botanist, chiefly remembered for founding Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in 1913.

Pearson started his career as a chemist's assistant, but changed his interests after attending a lecture on plants by Albert Seward at Eastbourne in 1892.

For this ecological dissertation he received the Walsingham Medal from Cambridge, the marine biologist Ernest William MacBride having been the first recipient in 1893.

He made an impassioned appeal to the authorities and the public at his 1910 presidential address to the South African Association for the Advancement of Science.

As a consequence the Botanical Society of South Africa was formed in 1912 and a deputation was despatched to make representations to the Prime Minister, Louis Botha.