John Beaumont Williams

John Beaumont Williams (12 February 1932 – 31 July 2005) was an Australian botanist who spent most of his working life, from 1957 until 1992 as a lecturer in taxonomy, anatomy and ecology at the University of New England.

When Beadle was appointed Chair of Botany at the University of New England, Williams followed to take up a lecturing position at the same institution and to complete his PhD.

For the next few years he concentrated on teaching, fieldwork and producing plant lists for north-eastern New South Wales as well as spending time studying in the Jodrell Laboratory at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew working on the family Haemodoraceae.

He contributed to an understanding of the botany and ecology of north-eastern New South Wales, to the conservation and protection of rainforest areas such as Terania Creek in the Nightcap National Park and to the genera Eucalyptus and Parsonsia.

He is the author of 36 papers on members of the genera Parsonsia and Neoastelia but also on the rare Boronia boliviensis, Eucalyptus boliviana and others.

Memorial to Williams in the New England National Park