Prominent botanist and mycologist (fungi). Leader of the first women's army corps.
Dame Helen Charlotte Isabella Gwynne-Vaughan, GBE During WW1 she served in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps and then as Commandant of the Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) 1918-19. During WW2, 1939-41, she served as Chief Controller of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS).
Born in Westminster as Helen Charlotte Isabella Fraser into an army, aristocratic family. Interested in politics and votes for women. She studied and entered academia but took a break to serve in WW1, and again for WW2.
1911, she married David Thomas Gwynne-Vaughan (1871–1915), whom she had succeeded as head of the botany department at Birkbeck College, London. He died from tuberculosis after four years of marriage, and they had no children. In 1964 Gwynne-Vaughan finally left Bedford Court Mansions and spent her final years at Sussexdown, a convalescent home run by the RAF association.
The 1918 portrait is by William Orpen.
More information at King's College, London.
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