Lady Cynthia Tait (1894–1962), born Kate Cynthia Grenfell, was a proficient botanical illustrator, particularly of

Southern African Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number of ...

flowers. She was married to Admiral Sir William Eric

Campbell Tait Admiral Sir William Eric Campbell Tait (12 August 1886 – 17 July 1946) was a senior British naval officer, courtier and the fifth Governor of Southern Rhodesia after his naval retirement in 1944, serving from 1945 to 1946. He commanded var ...

and during his prolonged absences found ample time to become interested in and paint wild flowers. After Campbell Tait's death in 1946 she was married to Lancelot Herbert Ussher of Luncarty, Claremont, Cape, South Africa. She was the daughter of Capt. Hubert Henry Grenfell RN (1845–1906), an expert in naval gunnery and the inventor of several improvements in that field, and Eleanor Kate Cunningham (1852–1932). Tait's siblings were Florence Grenfell, Captain Francis Henry Grenfell, Huberta Grenfell, Agnes Margery Grenfell, Captain Russell Grenfell and Paula Stella Grenfell. She and Campbell Tait had daughters who attended

Blanchelande College Blanchelande College is a 4–18 mixed, Roman Catholic, private school and sixth form in Saint Andrew, Guernsey. It was established in 1902 and is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth. It is the only fully mixed independent school ...

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

, where she stayed on occasion when her husband was posted to the Far East. She also spent time in South Africa, and in

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

when her husband was governor there. Her paintings were inherited by her granddaughter, Cynthia Cormack, who only recently disclosed their whereabouts. A book on these paintings was published in 2018 – 'The Tait Florilegium' (Gateway Publishing Ltd).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tait, Cynthia Botanical illustrators 1894 births 1962 deaths