Henry Graves Bull

Henry Graves Bull (15 January 1818, Northamptonshire – 31 October 1885, Hereford) was a British medical doctor, botanist, mycologist, naturalist, historian, and one of the early presidents of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club. He is noteworthy as a mycologist, pomologist, and the co-editor with Robert Hogg of the two-volume work The Herefordshire Pomona, It contains full descriptions of 423 varieties of apples and pears.

Career Bull began his medical career in 1834 at Northampton General Infirmary. He pursued medical studies at Edinburgh, spent a year at the medical schools of Paris, and then completed his M.D. at Edinburgh. There he won two gold medals for his medical essays and received Sir Charles Bell's prize for surgery. He practised medicine at Hereford Dispensary from 1842 until the week before his death. He was appointed to the staff of the General Infirmary in 1864. He had a large practice and gave advice free of charge to many indigent patients. From 1846 to 1880 he served as Medical Officer to the Hereford Prison. In 1867 he established the club's fungus forays.

Personal life In 1854 Bull married Elizabeth Read in St Giles, London. By 1871 they had four sons and four daughters. In Hereford he was very civic-minded and improved Herefordshire's facilities of health and education. Upon his death in 1885 at age 67, he was survived by his widow, two sons, and four daughters.

Legacy His house in Hereford displays an English Heritage blue plaque. A memorial tablet in Hereford Cathedral records his life and work.

The National Museum of Wales has Bull's botanical and mycological specimens. His letters are at the Natural History Museum, London. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew curates his drawings of Hereford fungi.

Selected publications Articles

(See Viscum album.)

Books