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

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and philanthropist.

Early life

She was born Shirley Cross. Sherwood was educated at

St Anne's College, Oxford St Anne's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, 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. ...

. 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. With the development of proton pump i ...

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. They are generally meant to be scientifically descriptive about subjects depicted and are often found printed alongside a botanical description in boo ...

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 1759, 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 Heritag ...

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 valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

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

Personal life

In 1977, Sherwood married the businessman

James Sherwood James Blair Sherwood (August 8, 1933 – May 18, 2020) was an American-born, British-based businessman, and the founder of Belmond Limited and Sea Containers. Early life James Blair Sherwood was born in Newcastle, Pennsylvania, the son of Willia ...

, 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 has been published as a magazine supplement by British national ...

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