Sir Charles Alfred Barber (the founder)

Sir Charles Alfred Barber, a botanist and taxonomist under the British government stayed at Karimbam as part of his assignment to make a comprehensive study of plants for the preparation of a kind of registry titled `Flora of the Madras Presidency' .Dr. Barber was born at Wynberg in South Africa in 1860. He was the son of William Barber, and Edith Leather, daughter of the Rev. G. R. Osborne. He went to Cambridge University before going out to Madras as the Government Botanist.Dr. Barber started his work here after he was appointed the Director of the Botanical Survey of India.He is also listed as a Sugar Cane expert. He died on February 23 , 1933. He had published several books on grasses and other horticultural subjects.