Robert Lloyd Praeger

[1] He joined the Belfast Naturalists Field Club (BNFC) at age 11, and was already judging a category in the precursor to the Chelsea Flower Show at 17.

While at college he also became very active in the BNFC, learning a range of practical naturalist skills; he was elected to the club's committee in 1885.

[1] Praeger was an engineer by qualification and initial practice, a librarian of long and senior standing by profession and a naturalist by inclination.

Praeger met his future wife, Hedwig Elena Ingeborg Meta Magnusson ("Hedi") in 1901; they became engaged after two weeks, and married in 1902.

[1] His younger sister Sophia Rosamond Praeger was a sculptor, children’s book author and illustrator as well as a botanical artist.

Praeger was instrumental in developing advanced methodologies in Irish botany by inviting Knud Jessen, the acclaimed Danish expert in Glacial and Post-Glacial flora, to undertake research and teaching in Ireland.

[11] Since 1958, the fund has provided roughly three hundred and sixty grants to natural historians for fieldwork initiatives in Ireland.

For Praeger, the book serves as “a kind of thank offering” for all of the time he spent “walking the countryside…and exploring cattle-tramped tombs”.

[13] In his speech he mentions the issue of ribbon development as the “continuous line of houses should shut out welcome views of the wide open country that lies behind them”[13] which will affect tourism.