Miriam Rothschild (1908 – 2005)

Miriam Rothschild was a pioneering entomologist and botanist who wrote over 350 scientific papers and received eight honorary doctorates.  She had worked during the war as a code-breaker at Bletchley Park and later campaigned for the legalisation of homosexuality and human rights, founded the 'Schizophrenia Research Fund' in 1962 and was a patron and supporter of the art therapist Edward Adamson.

Miriam had a privileged upbringing and was educated at home until the age of 17. It has been suggested that her lack of orthodox education stopped her getting the full recognition for her scientific achievements;  for example she was not elected to the Royal Society until 1985 when she was 77 and was made a Dame in 2000 at the age of 92.  She was a larger than life character and reputedly ‘dressed usually in mauve frocks and headdresses, an outfit often completed, even on the grandest occasions, by white Wellingtons (she was a bee-keeper)’.

All the while she was an active conservationist and was most influential in alerting gardeners to the disappearing wildflowers and wildlife around them: ‘I realised with dismay that wildflowers had been drained, bulldozed, weedkillered and fertilised out of the fields, and that we now have a countryside reminiscent of a snooker table’.

Wildflower Meadow, Highgrove Gardens

She campaigned against the use of pesticides on farmland and in gardens and encouraged the introduction of wildflowers such as primroses and cowslips on roadsides and motorways as well as parks and gardens.  She produced her own seed mix which she called ‘Farmer’s Nightmare’ (a selection of annuals that were once common in cornfields) to establish meadows in her own fields – which led to her helping Prince Charles create his own ten hectares of wild flower meadows at Highgrove. 

Miriam inherited Ashton Wold, near Oundle, in 1940, but did not have time to devote to its many gardens until the 1970s when she returned to live there.  She then planted wild gardens in the formally laid out terraces and lawns, mixing cultivated and wild flowers to attract insects and butterflies.  Although she pioneered the importance of conservation she also appreciated beauty: ‘I garden purely for pleasure. I love plants and flowers and green leaves, and I am incurably romantic – hankering after small stars spangling through the grass’. 

She also realised that gardening and appreciation of nature was essential for wellbeing; a subject close to her heart with her support for mental health research, and she knew that ‘people really do benefit from contact with plants, animals, birds and butterflies.  Without them we are a deprived species’.

In 1991 (at the age of 83) Miriam Rothschild was awarded the RHS Victoria Medal of Honour.  She was a pioneering advocate of biodiversity, a role that Prince Charles has also championed: ‘(My) garden has come to symbolise the new sympathy with wildlife. The battle with weeds, the conquest of Nature is a thing of the past. Nor is the garden a quiet Edwardian refuge - it is John Clare's countryside resurrected’.

Top image credit: Bryan and Cherry Alexander Photography