Set of 6 medals awarded to the esteemed botanist William Lawrence Balls (1882-1960). Thsi group includes:
- Royal Geographical Society 39mm Silver Medal by Wyon, awarded 1898. In fitted case of issue.
- France Paris International Genetics Congress 60mm medal by R. Benard. Housed in later, unrelated case.
- Walsingham Medal of the University of Cambridge, 67mm, by Edward Onslow Ford. Awarded 1906 and housed in fitted Pinches case.
- George V Royal Society of Arts Silver President's Medal, 55mm, by B. Mackennal / L.C Wyon. Edge engraved 'W. Lawrence Balls, Sc. D., For His Paper On "Examples Of Applied Science In The Cotton Industry". Session 1917-18." Housed in fitted Wyon case of issue.
- Egyptian Marksman medal by Kenning and Son, cased.
- N.R.A Rifle Club medal by Elkington & Co, cased.
A fantastic set of medals awarded to an important British botanist.
William Lawrence Balls, CMG, CBE, FRS (3 September 1882 – 18 July 1960) was a British botanist who specialised in cotton technology. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1923.
Balls was educated at Norwich School, and at St John's College, Cambridge. After university, he applied for and was appointed to the new post of 'Cryptogamic Botanist' to the Khedivial Agricultural Society of Egypt in Cairo, which he took up in November 1904. He worked for the Society until 1910 when he was transferred to the newly founded Department of Agriculture of the Egyptian government as Botanist. Beginning in 1905 with 1-acre (0.40 ha) of land, he was able to observe nine successive cotton crops in great detail, studying genetics, physiology and textile technology. In this period, he published 45 papers and the book, The Cotton Plant in Egypt, in which he summarised and added to his studies in genetics and physiology. The book became a botanical classic. Balls was elected a Fellow of St John's College in 1908.
Balls returned to England in 1914 where he continued his studies of cotton fibre quality for the next ten years, mastering the art of cotton spinning and conducting research into cotton spinning technology. During this period, he became chairman for the Joint Standing Committee of the Board of Trade Committee, which grew into the Empire Cotton Growing Corporation, and the Shirley Institute of the British Cotton Industry Research Association. He became a member of the Textiles Institute, Manchester, in 1916 and published the book, Handbook of cotton spinning tests (1920). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May 1923. He was invited to return to Egypt as the head of all cotton work and was to remain there for the remainder of his working life. Personal research was limited but he was able to make great practical achievements using his administrative skills and to co-ordinate the work on cotton botany, agronomy and entomology. He studied the movement of water movement across all of the 70-acre (28 ha) farm for more than 25 years and used this information when writing The Yields Of A Crop (1953) after his retirement. He established the concept of pure-line seed supply and a plant for the actual spinning of small samples. He discovered that deliberate genetical selection could be done for yarn strength, which was the most important discovery made in cotton breeding at that time.
During World War II, Balls's services were used by the forces and he became Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Commander-in-Chief at Middle East Headquarters, where he devoted much time to the invention of a mine detector.
Dr. Balls was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1934. Balls was given Honorary Fellowship of the Textile Institute in 1943 and appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 1944. He was 'awarded honorary Doctorate', in 1953.
Balls died on 18 July 1960, at the age of 77.