Morley Benjamin Crane

Morley Benjamin Crane (1890 to 1983) was a British botanist known for his work on plant compatibility. Born in Lambeth and raised in East Anglia among fruit growers, he left school at twelve and worked on farms and fruit trees before joining the John Innes Horticultural Institution at Merton in 1911 as a student horticulturalist supported by a bursary from the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers. He began experiments on tomato genetics, published in 1915, served in the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War, and returned to the John Innes in 1919, becoming pomologist in 1928, head of a new Department of Pomology in 1937 and deputy director in 1950 until he retired in 1953. He received the Jones-Bateman Cup and Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1930, the Veitch Memorial Medal in 1938 and the Victoria Medal of Honour in 1944, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1947.