Charlotte, Lady Wheeler-Cuffe

Lady Charlotte Wheeler Cuffe (née Williams) (1867-1967) was an Irish botanic artist and collector.

Life

Wheeler was born in London to a family with Irish connections, her grandfather being the Rev. Sir Hercules Langrish, third Baronet of Knocktopher, County Kilkenny. Her father, William Williams, was a President of the Law Society of England and Wales.

She was a noted botanical watercolourist. Her husband Sir Otway Wheeler-Cuffe, Bt (see Wheeler-Cuffe Baronets), a civil engineer, from Kilkenny was an Imperial official in Burma and she travelled with him to the remote regions. Many of her expeditions are detailed in correspondence with Sir Frederick Moore the Director of the Irish National Botanic Gardens, and her cousin the Baroness Pauline Prochazka (1842-1930) of Lyrath, Kilkenny. Near Mount Victoria in 1911 she found two rhododendrons, one yellow rhododendron burmacium hardy, the other white indoor rhododendron cuffeanum, seedlings of these were sent to the Irish National Botanic Gardens at Glasnevin where they thrived. She was the earliest known botanical explorer to reach this remote area. She also designed a 150-acre (0.61 km²) Botanic Garden at Maymo while in Burma. She returned to Ireland in 1921, after 24 years in Burma to Leyrath, Kilkenny now a hotel. The bulk of her collection she gave to the Irish National Botanic Gardens in 1926. These mainly relate to Burmese orchids from 1902 to 1921, together with landscapes of Burma and Ireland.

See also

• Irish Botanical Artists
• Irish Plant Collectors
• Patricia Butler,Irish Botanical Illustrators, Antique Collectors Club, London 2000 ISBN 1-85149-357-3

External references

• Frank Kingdon Ward, commissioned drawing
• National Botanic Gardens Art Collection
• Dr. E Charles Nelson proposed book

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Name	Wheeler Cuffe
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Date of birth	1867
Place of birth
Date of death	1967
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