My father, George Lawson, who has died aged 88, rose from a humble background to become an ecologist and a leading authority on the biogeography of west African seaweeds.
He spent most of his working life in Africa, 10 years of which involved surveying the whole of the west African coast from the western Sahara in the north to Namibia in the south. He was never discouraged from visiting countries considered war zones: on one occasion he and his colleague Dave John were captured by Polisario guerrillas, but he was able to persuade their captors to allow them to carry on collecting seaweeds on the shore under armed guard.
Born to George Lawson, a miner and labourer, and his wife Ethel, a dancer, he grew up in a back-to-back house in Sunderland and left school at 16. A leader in the Sea Scouts, on reaching the age of 18 during the second world war he opted for the Royal Navy. But instead of going to sea, George was sent to work down the coal mines. This enabled him to attend evening classes, however, and he eventually qualified to enrol for a biology degree course at King's College London.
His first job on graduating was a lectureship at the newly established University College of the Gold Coast (now University of Ghana), where he gained a PhD (through the University of London) and later became professor and head of the botany department. George was involved in the start of many innovative projects in the independent country of Ghana. He became, for example, chairman of the Volta basin research project set up to monitor the effects of building the largest hydroelectric dam in the world.
He specialised in west African seaweeds, and discovered several new species. One new genus, Basipora, was described by him, and species named after him included Botryocladia lawsonii and Pinnularia lawsonii.
He was also an excellent field botanist. His book Plant Life in West Africa (1966) was essential reading for anyone interested in west African vegetation. Its popularity was evident when a revised version was printed 20 years after its first publication.
George went on to head departments at the Universities of Kenya and Nigeria, and on retirement moved back to London to work as an honorary research associate at the Natural History Museum. On his return, he was awarded a DSc degree by London University in recognition of his contributions to African botany.
His marriage to a fellow lecturer in Ghana, Rowena, my mother, ended in divorce. He is survived by his partner of 30 years, Norma Peacock, my brother, Lawrence, and me.
