Tribute to Eric Fairgrieve Greenwood 1938 - 2022

Eric Greenwood surveying Dipsacus laciniatus (cutleaf teasel)
on the old tip at Bidston, August 2022

A regular attender at Wirral Wildlife events and our ‘go to’ botanist to identify a particularly tricky sedge, grass or orchid, Eric Greenwood died from cancer on 18th October. He was born on 15 Feb 1938 in Preston and as a wartime child helped turn the family garden into a smallholding. This developed into him having his own allotment where he grew prize-winning vegetables and fruit. He was always alert to the plants around him and his first record sent to the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) was when he was 12 and spotted mistletoe on a local tree. He was a BSBI member from 1963 and was vice-county recorder for V.C. 60 (West Lancaster) for over 50 years. It is hardly surprising that he graduated in Botany from the University of Durham and later received his MSc from the University of Newcastle.

In 1966, after teaching for a short while, Eric joined the then City of Liverpool Museum as Keeper of Botany. It was here he met his future wife Barbara. When he started at the Museum there was only one temporary display gallery open following wartime bombing, and when he retired in 1998 as Keeper of the World Museum Liverpool it had become a multi award winning National Museum. He was responsible for securing the £35 million Lottery grant which enabled the Museum’s major redevelopment. During his career at the Museum Eric was involved in many aspects of its development including the JASON project from 1993 to 1996. This was an American educational project designed to bring the excitement of live scientific exploration to students via satellite links from expeditions in Mexico, Belize, Hawaii and Florida. Students could interact with the expedition site, operate remotely controlled cameras and equipment, and ask questions of the research scientists. He was responsible for setting up the North West Biological Field Data Bank at the Museum ensuring that local naturalists’ records did not get lost. This eventually led to RECORD and Mersey Biobank, who today do the same work electronically, and pass records to the National Biodiversity Network.

Eric with his wife Barbara on the occasion of him being presented with
the President’s Medal of the Royal Society of Biology in July 2022 

Although not a founder member of the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, he was involved from the very early days and served a total of 53 years as either Council member, Trustee or member of its Conservation and Scientific Committees. Even though living in Wirral since 1973 he continued as a very active member of LWT. President of the Liverpool Botanical Society for many years and council member for 56 years, he continued to lead field meetings until 2021.

Eric never stopped his botanical investigations and research. North Lancashire flora was always his passion. In 2012 his ‘Flora of North Lancashire’ was a hugely important new publication, for which he gained the Joint Presidents Award from the BSBI and the Wildflower Society. It is an essential work of reference for the flora and ecology of Lancashire north of the Ribble, both now and into the future. Detailed and exhaustively researched, it represents a unique and indispensable 'snapshot' to act as a baseline for the ongoing analysis of changes in our natural environment. Eric put years of meticulous work into presenting this authoritative 656-page account, which also contains hundreds of distribution maps. This book highlights the world-wide significance of Lancashire's temperate, oceanic deciduous woodland and bog communities, and tries to explain changes including the impact of humans and climate.

In 2016 his book ’Hunting plants: the story of those who discovered the flowering plants and ferns of the North’ was published. During lockdown Eric spent more time researching Wirral’s flora and produced four papers this year alone. Two have already been published and one (on Wirral heaths) is due to be published in January.  In the last weeks of his life he put the finishing touches to his paper on the changing coastal flora of Wirral which will hopefully be published next year.

Eric at the summit of Clougha Pike (416m) on his 80th birthday, 15th February 2018

Eric never slowed down and to celebrate his 80th birthday climbed Clougha Pike in Lancashire with his family. On a cold February day the mist cleared just in time to give extensive views over the Lancashire plain and Morecambe Bay. He was following his illustrious predecessor, Albert Wilson, co-author of the Flora of West Lancashire (1907) who was photographed on the summit of nearby Ingleborough on his 80th birthday in 1942. 

Eric was awarded the President’s Medal of the Royal Society of Biology in 2020 in recognition of his work with the local RSB branch, but was unable to receive it due to Covid restrictions. However Eric was presented with the Medal by members of the North Western branch of the RSB surrounded by friends and family in his Heswall garden this July.

He will be sadly missed.