Henry Nicholas Ridley

Henry Nicholas Ridley CMG (1911), MA (Oxon), FRS, FLS, F.R.H.S. was an English botanist, geologist and naturalist who lived much of his life in Singapore. As Director of the Botanic Gardens in Singapore, he was instrumental in promoting the commercial exploitation of rubber trees in the Malay Peninsula, after devising a method of tapping rubber trees without damaging the bark or destroying the trees. As a result of his ardent attempts to persuade Malayan coffee planters to grow rubber, he became known as ‘Mad’ Ridley.