Tribute to Professor Brian Robert Allanson

Abstract

Professor Brian Robert Allanson, the doyen of South African zoology professors, died in Cape Town on 10 July 2022 at the age of 94 years. He is survived by his wife, Sue, five children, 12 grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Brian was born in Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) on New Year ’s Day in 1928 where his father, Arthur, was a marine engineer. The Allanson family moved to the United Kingdom when Brian was an infant and then to Port Elizabeth in 1938. Brian’s passionate interest in biology manifested early in life as he enjoyed dissecting rabbits, rats and all manner of other creatures. He was schooled at Grey High School and studied zoology and chemistry at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg, graduating in 1948. Whilst a student at the University of Natal in 1948 Brian took part in a research expedition organised by Dr George Campbell to Maputaland (including Lake Sibaya, an unexplored lake at the time). This trip whetted his appetite for doing research in the area, which eventually came to fruition 20 years later. This episode emphasises the importance of early student involvement in field research. After three years as Assistant Science Master at Hilton College, he earned his master ’s degree in marine biology at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and taught there as a junior lecturer in zoology for a year while commencing his studies for a PhD. In 1955 he joined the Zoology Department at UCTas a junior lecturer under Professor John Day. Later that year he married Sue Nicholson, who was studying librarianship at the university. When Brian received a four-year research fellowship from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Transvaal Provincial Administration, he and Sue moved to Pretoria where he was tasked with monitoring the health of the rivers that supply water to the province. During this period he was sent to England for a year as a visiting researcher at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) Water Pollution Laboratories in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, where he completed the write-up for his PhD from UCT. On his return he was appointed Head of the Division of Hydrobiology at the CSIR’s National Institute for Water Research, where he continued his work on rivers and reservoirs. In 1963, at the age of only 35 years, Brian Allanson was appointed Professor of Zoology and Entomology at Rhodes University, a position he held with distinction for the next 25 years. The dashing young professor apparently caused quite a stir in the quiet “City of Saints” and became the university’s first Dean of Research and one of the scholarly giants on the campus. His advice to struggling students was always, “Be strong and of good courage” (Joshua, 1, v 9), or “Go sit quietly and think.” It is no accident that the Department of Zoology and Entomology remains one of the top-performing research departments on the Rhodes University campus. In 1965 Professor Allanson established the Institute for Fresh Water Studies (IFWS) at Rhodes University and became its first Director. In 1968 he established a research station on the shores of South Africa’s largest natural freshwater lake, Lake Sibaya, which became an active hub for research in Maputaland, a poorly studied part of northern Zululand. The Lake Sibaya research programme was funded by the International Biological Programme (IBP) and attracted wide Figure 1. Professor Allanson on the beach staring out over his beloved Knysna Lagoon. Photo: Knysna Basin project.