{{short description|British botanist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox scientist | honorific_prefix = Professor | name = Paul Weatherley | honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRS|FRSE}} | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image = <!--(filename only, i.e. without "File:" prefix)--> | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = <!-- if different from "name" --> | birth_date = {{birth date |1917|05|06}} | birth_place = Leicester | death_date = {{death date and age |2001|08|08|1917|05|06}} | death_place = Torphins | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = <!--{{coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline,title}}--> | home_town = | other_names = | siglum = | pronounce = | citizenship = | fields = Botany | workplaces = University of Manchester | patrons = | education = Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys | alma_mater = Oxford University | thesis_title = <!--(or | thesis1_title = and | thesis2_title = )--> | thesis_url = <!--(or | thesis1_url = and | thesis2_url = )--> | thesis_year = 1942 | doctoral_advisor = <!--(or | doctoral_advisors = )--> | academic_advisors = A. G. Tansley | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | author_abbrev_bot = P. E. Weatherley | author_abbrev_zoo = | spouse = Margaret Logan Pirie | partner = <!--(or | partners = )--> | children = 4 | signature = <!--(filename only)--> | signature_alt = | website = <!--{{URL|www.example.com}}--> | footnotes = }} '''Paul Egerton Weatherley''' (1917&ndash;2001) was a British botanist.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/features/mar05.shtml|title=Botany - Archives Hub|website=archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk}}</ref> In authorship he is usually known as '''P. E. Weatherley'''.

==Life== He was born in Leicester on 6 May 1917, the son of Leonard Roger Weatherley and his wife, Ethel Maude Collin. He was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys.<ref name="auto">{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=978-0-902198-84-5|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=2019-04-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|archive-date=2016-03-04|url-status=dead}}</ref>

He won a scholarship to Oxford University studying Botany under A. G. Tansley and graduated MA in 1939. He then won a further scholarship from the Colonial Office to study tropical agriculture, gaining a doctorate in 1942 and then being posted to Africa as Government Botanist to the Department of Agriculture in Uganda. His journey to Uganda was extremely eventful as his ship was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Africa and he spent 18 hours in a lifeboat before being rescued.<ref name="auto1">Scotsman (newspaper) 13 September 2001</ref>

He stayed in Uganda until 1947 when he returned to lecture at the University of Manchester. In 1949 he went to the University of Nottingham being promoted to senior lecturer in 1956.

In 1959 he was made Professor of Botany at the University of Aberdeen. Whilst there he became a member of the Cairngorm Club and was an elder at St Machar's Cathedral.

In 1960 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were James Robert Matthews, Robert Brown, Harold Fletcher and Brian Burtt. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1973.<ref name="auto"/>

He retired to Torphins in 1981. Sadly he developed Parkinson's disease.<ref name="auto1"/>

He died in Torphins in Aberdeenshire on 8 August 2001.<ref name="auto1"/>

==Family==

In 1943 he married Margaret Logan Pirie. They had three daughters and a son.

==Publications==

*'' A Porometer for use in the Field'' (1966) *''Some Aspects of the Munch Hypothesis'' (1975) *''Hydraulic Resistance of the Soil-Root Interface'' (1979) *''Root Contraction in Transpiring Plants'' (1982) *''Water Uptake and Flow in Roots'' (1982)

==References== {{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weatherley, Paul Egerton}} Category:1917 births Category:2001 deaths Category:Scientists from Leicester Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford Category:Academics of the University of Aberdeen Category:British botanists Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Category:Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Category:People educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys Category:People from Torphins Category:British fellows of the Royal Society

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