In the north choir aisle of Westminster Abbey is a white marble memorial to eminent botanist Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker. The memorial has a profile portrait in relief and is signed by sculptor Frank Bowcher 1915. It measures: height 725mm, width 752mm with a diameter of 440mm. This seems to have been the only work executed in stone by Bowcher.
The Latin inscription can be translated:
Joseph Dalton Hooker 1817-1911. Most skilled at the science of herbs
His life
He was born at Halesworth in Suffolk on 30th June 1817, a son of Sir William Hooker (1785-1865), botany professor at Glasgow university, and his wife Maria (Turner). His brother was William Dawson Hooker (died 1840), a doctor, and he had three sisters.
Educated in Glasgow he graduated as a doctor and sailed on an expedition to New Zealand and the Antarctic as a surgeon. His first volume on the botany of these regions was published in 1884, and he formed a friendship with Charles Darwin. Later he travelled to India and the Himalayas, and to the USA.
In 1851 he married Frances (1825-1874), daughter of John Henslow, Cambridge professor of botany. They had four sons and three daughters but Minnie (Maria) died young. His second wife was Hyacinth Symonds and they had two sons.
Joseph was appointed Assistant Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in Surrey, where his father was its first Director. In 1865 he succeeded his father in the post. In 1877 he was knighted and in 1907 he received the Order of Merit.
He died on 10th December 1911 and burial was offered in the Abbey but this was declined by his widow who decided he should be buried beside his father in St Anne's churchyard in Kew.
Further reading
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2004 for Joseph and his father.
"Life and letters of Joseph Dalton Hooker" by L.Huxley, 1918.
"Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker: traveller and plant collector" by R.Desmond, 1999
This image can be purchased from Westminster Abbey Library
Image © 2025 Dean and Chapter of Westminster
