Ellen Willmott
English horticulturist (1858–1934)
Ellen Ann Willmott (19 August 1858 – 27 September 1934) was an English horticulturist. She was an influential member of the Royal Horticultural Society, and a recipient of the first Victoria Medal of Honour, awarded to British horticulturists living in the UK by the society, in 1897. Willmott was said to have cultivated more than 100,000 species and cultivars of plants and sponsored expeditions to discover new species. Inherited wealth allowed Willmott to buy large gardens in France and Italy to add to the garden at her home, Warley Place in Essex. More than 60 plants have been named after her or her home, Warley Place.
Early life
Ellen Willmott was born on 19 August 1858 in Heston, Middlesex, the eldest of three daughters of Frederick Willmott (1825–1892), a solicitor, and Ellen Willmott (née Fell) (died 1898). Through her mother she was related to the Tasker family, prominent Roman Catholics. She and her two sisters, Rose and Ada (died 1872), attended the exclusive Catholic convent school Gumley House for several years.
In 1875, the family moved to Warley Place at Great Warley, Essex, which had 33 acres (130,000 m2) of grounds; this was to be Ellen's lifelong home. The family were keen gardeners and developed Warley Place's gardens together.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ellen Willmott” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.