Sir Arthur William Hill and the British Empire

In 1922, David Prain was succeeded by his Assistant Director, Sir Arthur William Hill. Hill's activities were supported financially by the newly founded Empire Marketing Board, which funded both the new position of Economic Botanist and the sending of Kew staff on botanic expeditions overseas.

The Board was also responsible for the instigation of the quarantine service and paid for a new quarantine house at Kew. When the Board was wound up in 1938, Hill persuaded the Treasury to make permanent most of the temporary posts funded by the Empire Marketing Board.

The entire period 1885-1939 is predominantly known for Kew's expanding Imperial links. Throughout the Hooker period (1841-1885) the Gardens expanded their colonial links and collecting activities. From 1885 to 1939 the Gardens reinforced their position at the heart of a network of botanic gardens across the British Empire.

The Gardens advised the Colonial Office extensively on the introduction and translocation of plants. This role had developed from earlier successes, such as the transfer of rubber. In 1876, Kew received 70,000 seeds collected from the rubber tree's native Amazonian Brazil. Only 2,800 germinated, but from them, the seedlings sent to Sri Lanka and Malaysia flourished and started their rubber industries. In many respects, during the early part of this period, economic botany became Kew's dominant activity.

Hill continued this tradition, both in his work in conjunction with the Empire Marketing Board and in his encouragement of his staff to forge links with colonial institutions. He further expanded the Herbarium in 1932, which ensured the continued publication of colonial floras.

On-site changes continued under Hill, though he was sometimes frustrated by post-war austerity, such as with his aborted plans to replace the Temple of the Sun, destroyed in a storm in 1916. He was more successful in building, renovating, adapting and extending glasshouses. He responsible for a new Rhododendron House in 1925-1926; a larger Economic House in 1930 and a South African Succulent House for small desert plants in 1936.

Hill also looked to his home responsibilities and recognising the problem of pollution, he secured a second site for Kew's pines. In 1924 he entered into a joint venture with the Forestry Commission at Bedgebury, near Royal Tunbridge Wells in Kent. However, it was not an ideal site, as it suffered from frost pockets. In 1943, within weeks of becoming Director, Professor Edward Salisbury recommended the closure of the Bedgebury pinetum . Kew remained on the management board at Bedgebury until 1965, when it acquired the lease from the National Trust of Wakehurst Place in the High Weald of Sussex.

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