James Robert Matthews FRSE FLS CBE LLD (1889–1978) was a Scottish botanist.
He was born in the village of Dunning on 8 March 1889, the son of Janet (née McLean) and Robert Matthews.
[1] In the year 1912/13, he taught at North Berwick Secondary School, then in 1913 he began lecturing in botany at Birkbeck College in London.
In the First World War he was employed as a proto-zoologist at Western Command in Liverpool.
[2] In 1956 he was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and was granted an honorary doctorate (LLD) from Aberdeen University in 1960.