10 Facts About Lilian Gibbs

Lilian Suzette Gibbs was a British botanist who worked for the British Museum in London and was an authority on mountain ecosystems.

Lilian Gibbs studied initially at Swanley Horticultural College in Kent, UK and then specialised in botany at the Royal College of Science in London, studying under J B Farmer.

Lilian Gibbs visited Fiji in 1907, and explored the flora on the northern slopes of the Mount Victoria range, and then studied the bryophyte flora of New Zealand on her way home, identifying four new species of liverwort in the Waitakere Ranges.

Lilian Gibbs reported on the destruction of the New Zealand forests to permit grazing on her return to the UK in the Gardener's Chronicle in 1908 and 1909.

Lilian Gibbs was the first woman and the first botanist to ascend Mount Kinabalu in February 1910 while leading an expedition for three months that recorded 15 new plant species.

Lilian Gibbs's travels were limited after 1921 due to ill-health and she died on 30 January 1925 at Santa Cruz, on Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

Lilian Gibbs's specimens are in the collections at the British Museum.

Lilian Gibbs had the personality and ability to organise and carry out her expeditions successfully but was remembered for her skill as a hostess at afternoon tea-parties.

Lilian Gibbs was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1905.

Lilian Gibbs became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1919.