Biographies: Valerie Finnis and Christopher Brickell
Valerie Finnis
Valerie Finnis
was born at Crowborough in Sussex in October 1934. Developing an aptitude
for gardening at an
early
age, she recalled the effect that the intensity of blue gentians had upon
her when she was only three years old.
Choosing horticulture, above acting, as a career she trained at the Waterperry Horticultural School near Oxford staying on as a member of the teaching staff. After the Second World War she expanded the alpine department developing an expert knowledge of encrusted Saxifrages and a keen interest in photography concentrating on plant portraits and pictures of well-known gardeners. She remained at Waterperry for 28 years.
In 1970 she married Sir David Scott and, together they built a fine garden with a notable collection of trees and shrubs at the Dower House, Northamptonshire. After the death of her husband she established The Merlin Trust in memory of Sir David and Merlin, his son by a previous marriage. Merlin was a gifted amateur naturalist who had been killed during the war. Throughout her remaining years she showed great interest and support for the Trust and the young people it helped, talking fondly of ‘My Merlins’ of whose achievements she was immensely proud.
Valerie Finnis, who was awarded the Victoria Medal of Honour by the Royal Horticultural Society in 1975 for services to horticulture, died on 17th October 2006 aged 81. She will be remembered as a greatly admired horticulturalist and garden photographer as well as for the plants that bear her name; Artemisia ludoviciana - ‘Valerie Finnis’; Muscari armeniacum - ‘Valerie Finnis’ and Helleborus x sternii - ‘Boughton Beauty’.
Christopher Brickell
Chris was Director General of the Royal Horticultural
Society from 1985 to 1993 and prior to that was Director 
of
Wisley (1969-1985) and its Senior Scientific Officer and Botanist (1960-1969).
He was Chairman of the International Society for Horticultural Science
(ISHS) Commission for Nomenclature and Registration from 1972 to 2000
and has been Chairman of the IUBS Commission for the Nomenclature of
Cultivated Plants since 1979, chairing the Editorial Committee of that
Commission for the 1980, 1995 and 2004 editions of the 'Cultivated Plant
Code'. He also chaired the RHS Advisory Panel on Nomenclature and Taxonomy
from 1994 to 2002 and is a member of a number of RHS Plant and Trials
Committees as well as serving on the UK Plant Breeders' Rights Controller's
Advisory Panel for herbaceous plants (Plant Variety Rights Office). He
is interested in the conservation of both wild and cultivated plants
and in 1978 he initiated the formation of the National Council for the
Conservation of Plants and Gardens (NCCPG) and the establishment of National
Plant Collections.
