Ruth Mary Tristram
British botanist and botanical illustrator (1886-1950)
Ruth Mary Tristram (née Cardew; 25 April 1886 – 22 October 1950) was a British amateur botanist. She was an expert on the genus Plantago. She was one of the early women elected as a Fellow of the Linnean Society, being only 25 when she was honoured in 1911 with the fellowship. Tristram was also a member of the Wild Flower Society.
Life
Born Ruth Mary Cardew on 25 April 1886, Tristram married Major Guy H. Tristram (d. 1963) in 1919, and they had four children together. The Tristrams lived at the (now listed) Cox's Mill, Dallington. Tristram's son Launcelot died aged eight, and Tristram attempted to communicate with him by automatic writing. Her son Christopher Guy (3 August 1925 – 1943) was killed when the Valaaren was sunk by German submarine U-229 after leaving convoy HX231 (the "Crisis Convoy"). Her son David became a noted helleborist. Ruth Mary Tristram died on 22 October 1950.
“Ruth Mary Tristram” enters the record as british botanist and botanical illustrator (1886-1950). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ruth, Mary and Tristram can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ruth Mary Tristram” 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.