{{Short description|British botanist (1910–1979)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Percy Wragg Brian | honorific_suffix = FRS FRSE CBE | birth_date = 5 September 1910 | birth_place = Hall Green, Yardley | death_date = 17 August 1979 | field = Botany }} '''Percy Wragg Brian''' FRS<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | last1 = Garrett | first1 = Stephen Denis| doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1981.0005 | doi-access = free| title = Percy Wragg Brian. 5 September 1910-17 August 1979 | journal = Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society | volume = 27 | pages = 102–126 | year = 1981 | jstor = 769867| s2cid = 72268124}}</ref> FRSE CBE (5 September 1910 – 17 August 1979) was a British botanist and mycologist. He was critical to the development of plant pathology and natural antibiotics such as Gibberellin and Griseofulvin.<ref name="rsbm.royalsocietypublishing.org">{{cite journal|title=Percy Wragg Brian, 5 September 1910 - 17 August 1979 &#124; Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society|pages=102–130|journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society|volume=27|doi=10.1098/rsbm.1981.0005|doi-access=free|date=November 1981|last1=Garrett|first1=Stephen Denis|s2cid=72268124}}</ref>

==Life==

He was born in Hall Green, Yardley to Percy Brian (1881–1945), a schoolteacher from Macclesfield and his wife Adelaide Wragg.<ref name="frs"/> His early education was at King Edward's School, Birmingham.<ref name="royalsoced.org.uk">{{Cite web |url=http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2015-05-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919152306/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf |archive-date=2015-09-19 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He graduated from King's College, Cambridge in 1931. He was awarded a PhD in 1936 and DSc in 1951, and he was elected a Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge in 1968.<ref name="glasgow">{{cite web|url=http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH2156&type=P|website=universitystory.gla.ac.uk|title=University of Glasgow :: Story :: Biography of Percy Brian|access-date=2018-04-10}}</ref>

His first employment was as Assistant Mycologist at Long Ashton Research Station where he worked from 1934 to 1936. In 1936 he began at ICI's facility at Jealott's Hill<ref name="rsbm.royalsocietypublishing.org"/> before moving in the late 1930s to their Butterwick Research Laboratories (later renamed Akers) as Mycologist and in 1946 was promoted to Head of Microbiology. He served in this role for ICI until 1961 and spent his final two years with them as Associate Research Manager.<ref name="royalsoced.org.uk"/> During this period, in 1962, he was on a team which discovered new antibiotics produced by fungi.

He was appointed to the Regius Chair of Botany at University of Glasgow in 1962, leaving six years later to become Head of the Cambridge Botany School.<ref name="glasgow"/>

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1958.<ref name="frs"/> In 1964 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.<ref>{{cite news |title=Fellows of the Royal Society {{!}} Queens' College |url=https://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/visiting-the-college/history/college-facts/fellows-of-the-royal-society |work=www.queens.cam.ac.uk}}</ref>

He was President of the British Mycological Society in 1959 and 1965; President of the Association of Applied Biologists in 1961; and President of the Society of General Microbiology from 1965 to 1968.<ref name="royalsoced.org.uk"/>

==Family==

He married twice, firstly to Iris Hunt in 1934 (dissolved) secondly to Meg Gilling in 1948.<ref name="royalsoced.org.uk"/> His younger brother, Michael Vaughan Brian (1919–1990), was an entomologist, specialising in ants.<ref name="springer">{{cite journal|title=Michael Vaughan Brian M.A. Sc.D. OBE (1919–1990)|journal=Insectes Sociaux|volume=38|issue=3|pages=331–332|doi=10.1007/BF01314919|year = 1991|last1 = Elmes|first1 = G. W.|last2=Stradling|first2=D. J.|s2cid=5960399|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brian, Percy Wragg}} Category:1910 births Category:1979 deaths Category:Scientists from Birmingham, West Midlands Category:Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Category:Fellows of Queens' College, Cambridge Category:20th-century British botanists Category:Professors of Botany (Cambridge) Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:British fellows of the Royal Society

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