Faulkner , Helen , 1888-1979 , botanist

Helen Faulkner was born in Yorkshire in June 1888. She studied art and painting in Paris. She married Major Faulkner in 1921 in Hampshire and moved to Tasmania where her husband owned a small farm. In 1924 they moved to Tanganyika where Major Faulkner was employed by Bird and Co. He then transferred to Wigglesworth and Co in Angola. Helen Faulkner was so impressed by the rich flora of the Alto Catumbela that she started to systematically paint water colour sketches of wild flowers. She became acquainted with the Government Botanist John Gossweiler who encouraged her to make herbarium specimens of the highest quality. In 1942 Major Faulkner was posted to the Namagoa Plantations at Mocuba in the Zambezia Province of Mozambique. Soon Helen Faulkner was collecting actively and corresponding with the National Herbarium, Pretoria, and the Government Herbarium, Salisbury.

In 1947 she visited Kew and began a long partnership with Edgar Milne-Redhead then in charge of the African Section. The collaboration started with three cases of Mozambique plants, bulbs and seeds as well as loan of notes and paintings. She continued to send specimens to RBGK until 1977.
In 1950 Major Faulkner returned to the Tanga area and managed sisal estates for Bird and Co at Bushiri (1950-1951), Kange (1951-1952) and Magunga until he retired in 1954. They then bought a house in Mwambani, where Helen Faulkner remained for the rest of her life apart from five years spent in Zanzibar (1959-1964) where Major Faulkner managed the English Club. Major Faulkner died in 1969. She died at her home on 26 January 1979. She had two sons Denis and Ian.