Charles Livesey Walton (1881–1953): from marine to veterinary to agricultural zoology

Abstract

Charles Livesey Walton (1881–1953) was born on the Isle of Man, but moved in childhood via Yorkshire to the south coast of Pembrokeshire (Wales). Later, having become a man of private means, he relocated to Devon. He was associated with the Marine Biological Laboratory of the United Kingdom in Plymouth from 1907 until 1912, where he developed expertise on sea anemones. His first publication was on these animals, in 1907 with Professor Herbert John Fleure of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, where he eventually gained employment in 1912. There, he changed course to work on various aspects of veterinary and agricultural zoology, themes he pursued at the University College of North Wales, Bangor. He considered his major contribution to have been his work there on “liver rot” (fasciolosis) in sheep, carried out from 1919 and during the economic depression of the 1920s. As a marine zoologist, he is probably best known for his co-authorship of The biology of the sea-shore (1922) with Frederick William Flattely. He moved from Bangor in 1927 to the Long Ashton Research Station, University of Bristol, as an agricultural entomologist. As part of a multidisciplinary team there, he developed and tested chemical treatments against a wide variety of plant pests and diseases. Retiring to St David's, Pembrokeshire, he catalogued plants of the peninsula. Walton apparently never married. The comprehensive bibliography presented here constitutes an appropriate memorial alongside his influential final book, Farmers' warfare (1947).