Background
Reginald Gates was born on May 1, 1882, near Middleton, Nova Scotia. He had a twin sister named Charlotte.
62 York St, Sackville, NB E4L 1E2, Canada
Gates received his Bachelor of Arts in 1903 and a Master of Arts in 1904 from Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick.
845 Rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montréal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada
Gates earned a Bachelor of Science in 1906 from McGill University.
5801 S Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL 60637, United States
Gates earned him the doctorate at the University of Chicago.
United Kingdom
Reginald Ruggles Gates
United Kingdom
Reginald Ruggles Gates
anthropologist Botanist educator geneticist scientist
Reginald Gates was born on May 1, 1882, near Middleton, Nova Scotia. He had a twin sister named Charlotte.
Gates received his Bachelor of Arts in 1903 and a Master of Arts in 1904 from Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick. He also earned a Bachelor of Science in 1906 from McGill University. During the summer of 1905 Gates was introduced to the complicated genetics of Oenothera while studying at the Woods Hole Biological Laboratory. He pursued this problem in the research which in 1908 earned him the doctorate at the University of Chicago.
After leaving Chicago, Gates spent two years at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis as an experimenter. In 1912 he crossed the Atlantic and began to teach, first as a lecturer at St. Thomas Hospital, London, and then as a reader and Subsequently head of the botany department of King’s College, University of London. As his administrative duties increased, his research activities decreased. He participated in the work of his graduate students. During his time in London Gates actively studied the mutant forms of Oenothera and other plants. The cytological facts that Gates discovered are difficult to interpret. He tried to interpret them in The Mutation Factor in Evolution.
During the 1920’s Gates also developed an interest in eugenics and published a textbook on the subject at that time, Heredity and Eugenics. His most significant eugenic discovery, dealt with the gene for hairy ear rims, a characteristic of the Ainu of Japan. Gates located it on the Y chromosome. Most anthropologists and geneticists did not support Gates' ideas. And this led him to found a new journal, Mankind Quarterly, in which he would be free to voice his opinions.
Gates traveled widely, and late in life he often combined his travels with his eugenic investigations. From 1940 to 1950 he was in the United States, first on a lecture tour and then as an honorary research fellow at Harvard.
Gates' researches, particularly into the pedigrees of Negro families, convinced him that mankind had had polyphyletic origins and that only a small number of chromosomes were needed to produce racial differences. He was also convinced that racial crossing was genetically harmful. Most anthropologists and geneticists did not agree with Gates on these points.
Gates was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He was also a founding member of the International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics.
Gates married Marie Stopes in 1911, but the marriage was annulled in 1914. He married Jennie Williams in 1929. The marriage was later dissolved. In 1955, he married Laura Greer.