Helen Gwynne-Vaughan

Portrait by William Orpen, 1918.

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. 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.

Fungal species named in her honour include Palaeoendogone gwynne-vaughaniae^[5] and Pleurage gwynne-vaughaniae.^[6]

References

1. 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.
2. Noakes, Lucy. Women in the British Army Routledge, 2006, p. 68
3. RAF bio of Helen Gwynne-Vaughan
4. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 31378. p. 7026. 30 May 1919. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
5. Strullu-Derrien, C; Kenrick,P; Pressel, S; Duckett, J.G; Rioult, J.P and Strullu, D.G. (2014). "Fungal associations in Horneophyton ligneri from the Rhynie Chert (c. 407 million year old) closely resemble those in extant lower land plants: novel insights into ancestral plant–fungus symbioses". New Phytologist 203 (3): 964–79. doi:10.1111/nph.12805.
6. Page WM. (1960). "Pleurage gwynne-vaughaniae sp.nov.". Transactions of the British Mycological Society 43 (3): 506–508. doi:10.1016/s0007-1536(60)80032-0.

Sources

• Kerr, Rose (1976). Story of the Girl Guides 1908-1938. London: Girl Guides Association.

• Noakes, Lucy (2006). Women in the British Army; War and the Gentle Sex, 1907-1948. London: Routledge.

• Creese, Mary R. S. (September 2004). "Vaughan, Dame Helen Charlotte Isabella Gwynne- (1879–1967)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2010-06-27.