Charles Crossland

Charles Crossland (3 September 1844 – 9 December 1916) was an English mycologist.

Background and career Charles Crossland was born in Halifax, Yorkshire. His parents ran a general store and Charles left school at 13 to help them run the business. He trained as a butcher and opened a shop in Wyke in 1864, the same year he married Mary Ann Cragg. The couple had four children, two dying in infancy, and Mary Ann herself died in 1869. Charles remarried in 1871 and had two children by his second wife, Clementina Foster. In 1873, the couple returned to Halifax, where they opened a butcher's shop which they continued to run till Charles largely retired from the trade (leaving the shop mostly in the hands of a managing partner) in 1890. He was treasurer of the Halifax Butchers' Association from 1881 to 1908 and often referred to himself as a "Knight of the Cleaver".

Mycology Crossland initially became interested in botany in 1880, whilst helping one of his daughters with a Sunday school wild flower project. He joined the Halifax Scientific Society to pursue his new-found enthusiasm, and subsequently the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union. In 1888, at a YNU fungus foray, Crossland met George Edward Massee who encouraged him to take an interest in fungi.

Selected publications Crossland, C. (1892). New and rare fungi near Halifax. The Naturalist 1892: 371–372 Crossland, C. (1899). Mollisia cinerea and its varieties. Transactions of the British Mycological Society 1: 106–109. Crump, W.B. & Crossland, C. (1904). The flora of the parish of Halifax. Halifax Scientific Society https://archive.org/stream/floraofparishofh1904crum#page/n5/mode/2up Massee. G. & Crossland, C. (1905). The fungus flora of Yorkshire. London: A. Brown https://archive.org/stream/fungusfloraofyor00mass#page/n0/mode/2up