Bristol born and Bred

Anna Russell (1807–1876), botanist, was born in the Arnos Vale area of Bristol in November 1807. She was one of five daughters and at least two sons. Her father was Philip John Worsley who worked as a sugar refiner.

Early education

Anna was brought up in a Unitarian family. The children were given every encouragement to develop their talents, and she and her brother Samuel had a great enthusiasm for natural history. Samuel collected fossils but Anna's interest lay initially in insects. Some years later, she became interested in botany. Anna may have been influenced in this by her brother-in-law, the Revd Thomas Butler who was a keen amateur botanist.

Collecting and recording

H. C. Watson's New Botanist's Guide (1835) first brought her botanical abilities to wider notice as she contributed a long list of known places for the rarer plants of her home district. Her knowledge won her the respect of its author, who in later years was to acclaim her diligence and accuracy with unwonted warmth.

Visits to see friends in Newbury in Berkshire improved her knowledge of British flora and she produced a list of plants local to Newbury. This list was published in 1839 as an appendix to history of that town, and in it more than sixty species were first recorded. Anna soon joined the Botanical Society of London and for many years she was active in contributing specimens to its annual exchanges of herbarium material. A number of species held in her collection were collected for her by a friend, Frederick Russell. Eventually their botanical friendship blossomed into a romance and they were married in 1844.

Married life and an interest in Funghi

After some years living in Brislington, Bristol, in 1856 the couple moved to Frederick Russell's home town of Kenilworth in Warwickshire.  Anna's interest then turned to fungi, as she eventually built up a collection of over 730 drawings, most of them of Warwickshire species.

Although very knowledgeable, able and productive, Anna Russell did not venture into print in her own right and her discoveries were exclusively published in the works of others.

Death

Anna died at Kenilworth on 11 November 1876, and was buried on the 16th of November with her husband who had died first.  She is buried in an area with other Unitarians. Her herbarium and a collection of birds' eggs were bequeathed by her to the Birmingham and Midland Institute, but neither can now be traced.