Max Walters

Who was Max Walters?

Dr Max Walters was a British botanist and academic. As a conscientious objector in the Second World War, he worked as a hospital orderly in Sheffield and Bristol. He was Curator of the Herbarium, Botany School, University of Cambridge 1949-73, Lecturer in Botany 1962-73, and for the ten years up until his retirement, 1973-83, Director of the University Botanic Garden in Cambridge. He was a Research Fellow at St John's College, Cambridge 1948-51 and Fellow of King's College, Cambridge 1964-84.

He was the author of numerous books on plants and flowers, most notably the 1964 Atlas of the British Flora and as a co-editor of Flora Europaea. He wrote two well-known books for the New Naturalist library, Wild Flowers and Mountain Flowers. He was much involved in the research and management of Wicken Fen. After his retirement, he wrote a biography of Darwin's teacher and friend, John Stevens Henslow, Darwin's mentor.

Walters was a committed Christian who was much involved both in the local life of the Church of England and in the application of Christian principles to national and social life: he was a Christian socialist and also a Christian pacifist, and as such was a leading member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and also active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.