Amy Jacot Guillarmod

Who is Amy Jacot Guillarmod?

Amy Frances May Gordon Jacot Guillarmod, was a South African botanist and limnologist, noted for her work on the flora of Basutoland and some 200 publications, including numerous papers on wetlands, bogs and sponges. She matriculated at the Durban Girls' High School, leaving for Edinburgh shortly after.

Jacot Guillarmod was awarded an MA in English and History at the University of St Andrews, but inspired by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, switched interests and started an MSc degree in Botany and Zoology at the same university. On her return to South Africa, she taught briefly in Durban and was then appointed plant pathologist in the Division of Botany and Plant Pathology of the Department of Agriculture in Pretoria. Her first papers dealt with the viral diseases of tobacco and other crops.

She spent the years between 1940 and 1957 in Basutoland. In 1956/7 she became Head of the Botany Department of the Pius XII College in Roma.

In 1958 she and her family moved to Grahamstown when she took up an appointment as lecturer in the Botany Department of Rhodes University. Her links with Basutoland were not forgotten, and in 1967 she received a DSc from the University of St Andrews for her research on the flora of Basutoland.