Ronald Hatton

Sir Ronald George Hatton, CBE, FRS (6 July 1886 – 11 November 1965) was an English pomologist and "one of the most distinguished horticulturalists in the world".

Hatton was born in Yorkshire, England. His father Ernest Hatton and maternal grandfather William Pearson were lawyers; his mother Amy was the sister of Karl Pearson.

With the help of Dr Wellington, Hatton sorted out the incorrect naming and mixtures then widespread in apple rootstocks distributed throughout Europe. These verified and distinct apple rootstocks were then distributed throughout the world as Types, initially Type I through Type IX under the name "Malling series".

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1944.

He was made a CBE in 1934 and awarded a knighthood in 1949. He was a close friend of the academic historian A. L. Smith.

Hatton died in East Malling, England at the age of 79.

His son was Father Edmund Hatton, OSB,

a monk at Ampleforth Abbey: "Many of you will know that Fr Edmund was the son of the distinguished pomologist Sir Ronald Hatton. He spent much of his childhood in East Malling where his father was building up the East Malling Research Station which investigated, among other things, the horticulture of apples. It was there that he developed his love of apples and apple trees which would serve him well when he developed the orchards here at Ampleforth. But that is to leap ahead in his life story! Christopher Hatton was an only child when he came to school here. He was good at the sciences. In an article published in 1984 he commented that it had been thought at one time that he might be a brewery chemist when he left school, but this was not to be: he finished his formal education in 1940 and like others who completed their schooling at this time he then faced the difficult decision about whether he should enter the armed services or join the noviciate."[1]