Helen Gwynne-Vaughan
Dame Helen Charlotte Isabella Gwynne-Vaughan, GBE (née Fraser; 21 January 1879 – 26 August 1967) was a prominent English botanist and mycologist.
Life and work
Helen Charlotte Isabella Fraser was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College and King's College London, and she also studied under Margaret Jane Benson, head of the Department of Botany at Royal Holloway College.[1] In 1909, she was named head of the botany department at Birkbeck College in London. In 1911 she married David Thomas Gwynne-Vaughan, who died four years later.
In 1917, she was appointed Controller of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in France, alongside Mona Chalmers Watson, Chief Controller of the WAAC in London [2] For her service she became the first woman to receive a military CBE in 1918.[citation needed] She served as Commandant of the Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) from September 1918 until December 1919.[3]
In 1923, she stood as the Conservative candidate in Camberwell North.
Honours and distinctions
Gwynne-Vaughan received her DBE in 1919.[4] In 1921, she became a professor at Birkbeck College and continued her studies on fungi genetics as well as becoming involved in politics. In 1929, she was elevated to GBE.
She was also active in Girl Guides and was honoured with the Silver Fish. In 1930, Gwynne-Vaughan chaired the Guides' Sixth World Conference. At this conference, the constitution of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts was agreed and Olave Baden-Powell was unanimously voted World Chief Guide. Gwynne-Vaughan was first Chief Controller of the Auxiliary Territorial Service from 1939-41. She returned to Birkbeck and retired as Professor Emeritus in 1944.[citation needed]
Fungal species named in her honour include Palaeoendogone gwynne-vaughaniae[5] and Pleurage gwynne-vaughaniae.[6]
References
- ↑ Joyce Harvey and Marilyn Ogilvie, The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-Twentieth Century, Volume 1 (Google eBook), p. 116, Taylor & Francis US, 2000.
- ↑ Noakes, Lucy. Women in the British Army Routledge, 2006, p. 68
- ↑ RAF bio of Helen Gwynne-Vaughan
- ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 31378. p. 7026. 30 May 1919. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
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Sources
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| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Commandant, Women's Royal Air Force 1918–1919 |
Succeeded by Appointment abolished |
| Preceded by
New appointment
|
Director, Auxiliary Territorial Service 1939–1941 |
Succeeded by Mrs Jean Knox |
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with unsourced statements from June 2010
- Articles with unsourced statements from September 2011
- Use dmy dates from September 2011
- 1879 births
- 1967 deaths
- People educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College
- Alumni of King's College London
- Academics of Birkbeck, University of London
- British botanists
- English people of Welsh descent
- British mycologists
- Dames Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
- Disease-related deaths in England
- Girlguiding UK
- Scouting pioneers
- British women in World War I
- British women in World War II
- Place of birth missing
- Women botanists
- 20th-century botanists
- British women scientists
- Conservative Party (UK) politicians
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