It is with deep regret that we record the recent death of Mary Briggs.  Although a professional pharmacist Mary will be remembered best as a botanist.  She served as the Honorary General Secretary of the Botanical Society of the British Isles (now the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland) from 1972 to 1997, and on retirement from this role became the Society’s first, and so far only, female President.  She also served for many years on the Society’s Meetings Committee and as its recorder for West Sussex, and led field meetings to diverse parts of the world.

Mary’s time as Secretary was characterised by the extraordinary way in which she kept in contact with so many of the Society’s members.  She was always keen to pass on any plant-lore which she came across, and she is one of seven people acknowledged as having ‘consistently supplied information’ for Roy Vickery’s Garlands, Conkers & Mother-die: British & Irish Plant-lore (2010).