Elsie M. Wakefield, O.B.E., M.A. (1886-1972)
Elsie Wakefield was born in Birmingham but spent much of her childhood in Swansea, near the Gower peninsula. Her father, a lecturer in science and a schoolmaster who had always been interested in natural history, was a great influence on her. After being educated in Swansea she went on to Oxford where she obtained a first class degree in botany. Later she became an assistant in the herbarium at the Botanic Gardens at Kew and in 1915 was appointed head of mycology.
She was a member of the British Mycological Society for sixty years, serving as Secretary, President and Vice-President at different times. She was a world expert on the Mycetozoa.
Miss Wakefield published almost one hundred papers on fungi and plant pathology, her contribution to the development of mycology was immense. In 1954 she published, ‘The observers’ book of common fungi’
Elsie Wakefield contributed one specimen to the LNHS gall collection.
For further information see her obituary in the Transactions of the British Mycological Society and The Journal of the Kew Guild