Shirley Angela Sherwood (née Cross, born 1 July 1933) is a British writer,

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

and philanthropist.

Early life

She was born Shirley Cross. Sherwood was educated at

St Anne's College, Oxford St Anne's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 and gained full college status in 1959. Originally a women's college, it has admitted men since 1979. It has some 450 undergraduate and 200 ...

. She took a bachelor's degree in botany and a D.Phil. working on a project that led to

tagamet Cimetidine, sold under the brand name Tagamet among others, is a histamine H2 receptor antagonist that inhibits stomach acid production. It is mainly used in the treatment of heartburn and peptic ulcers. The development of longer-acting H2 rec ...

Career

She is primarily a collector of, and author of books about,

botanical illustration Botanical illustration is the art of depicting the form, color, and details of plant species, frequently in watercolor paintings. They must be scientifically accurate but often also have an artistic component and may be printed with a botanical ...

s. ''The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art'', opened on 19 April 2008, at

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

is named after her. It was the first gallery in the world dedicated solely to botanical art. Sherwood has been described as a "driving force behind a revival of interest in botanical art". She is a vice-president of the

Nature in Art Nature in Art is a museum and art gallery at Wallsworth Hall, Twigworth, Gloucester, England, dedicated exclusively to art inspired by nature in all forms, styles and media. The museum has twice been specially commended in the National Heritage ...

Trust.

Honours

Sherwood was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to botanical art.

Personal life

In 1977, Sherwood married the businessman James Sherwood, who appeared in the 2004

Sunday Times Rich List The ''Sunday Times Rich List'' is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families resident in the United Kingdom ranked by net wealth. The list is updated annually in April and published as a magazine supplement by British national Sunday news ...

. Her sons, Simon and Charles, from her previous marriage adopted his surname.

Bibliography

* ''The Art of Plant Evolution'' (2009), by Dr Shirley Sherwood and Dr W John Kress * ''Contemporary Botanical Artists: The Shirley Sherwood Collection'' (1996); 2nd edition 2003 *''A New Flowering: 1000 Years of Botanical Art'' (2005), by Shirley Sherwood, Stephen Harris & Barrie Edward Juniper * ''Treasures of Botanical Art: Icons from the Shirley Sherwood and Kew Collections'' (2008), by Shirley Sherwood and Martyn Rix * ''A Passion For Plants: Contemporary Botanical Masterworks from the Shirley Sherwood Collection'' (2001) * ''Venice Simplon Orient-Express: The Return of the World's Most Celebrated Train'' (1983); 2nd edition 1985; 3rd edition 1990; 4th edition 1996 * Shirley A. M. Cross (1977) Localization of histamine and histamine H2-receptor antagonists in the gastric mucosa ''The Histochemical Journal'' 9 pages 619–644

References

External links

* Living people British nature writers British art collectors Women art collectors British botanists British botanical writers Women botanists Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Officers of the Order of the British Empire British women scientists British women writers Women science writers 1933 births {{UK-botanist-stub