British botanist, lepidopterist, ornithologist and estate manager, Henry John Elwes was amongst the most extensively travelled naturalists of his day and gathered all variety of specimens from every corner of the globe. Born on family owned Colesbourne Estate in the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire, he was educated at Eton as well as receiving tuition in Paris, Brussels and Dresden before joining the Scots Guard in 1865. He served for five years but was always more interested in collecting birds and eggs, for at this time he was a keen ornithologist. When he retired a captain just five years later Elwes began a lifetime of travelling. Starting with a trip to Sikkim, India, he continued on to visit Tibet, at that time a forbidden region. He published his findings as "On the geographical distribution of Asiatic birds" in 1873 but, although president of the British Ornithological Union, his interests would not remain with birds, instead moving steadily towards insects and, finally, to plants.

Over the years that followed, Elwes returned to Sikkim numerous times and continued on to explore much of Asia, including Nepal, India, China, Japan, Taiwan and Siberia, and in 1886 he was appointed naturalist on the failed Macaulay Mission to Tibet. As well as collecting plants he took a strong interest in butterflies, amassing a huge collection and donating generously to the Natural History Museum in London (BM). He published 27 papers on the subject during his lifetime including the descriptions of several new species. His exploration continued to the New World where he visited the USA, Canada and Mexico and he would spend the interim years travelling the length and breadth of Europe. Continually adding to his butterfly collection, Elwes attributed his developing love of botany to his wife, Margaret Susan whom he married in 1871. On expeditions he was particularly fond of collecting bulbs and it was said in the Gardeners Chronicle in the year of his death, that "many fine plants now familiar in most gardens we owe to him". In 1874 on an expedition to Turkey, Elwes discovered the snowdrop Galanthus elwesii Hook. f. which now bears his name.

After producing an important monograph on the genus Lilium in 1880 he was increasingly interested in trees and tree growth and began to compile information for his most monumental work, The trees of Great Britain and Ireland, which he published with A. Henry between 1906 and 1913. This publication was extensively researched and the pair personally collected almost all the species included in its seven volumes, donating many of their woody specimens to the School of Forestry in Cambridge. For his contributions to British botany, Elwes was selected to represent his country at the botanical and horticultural congresses in Petrograd and Amsterdam and was the Royal Horticultural Society's vice president and Victoria medallist. Also a fellow of the Linnaean Society (1874) and the Royal Society (1897), his hobby was shooting big game (while on expeditions or at home) and he was a member of a wild boar shooting syndicate in Ardennes for nine years.

Sources:
Anon, 1923, " Henry John Elwes (1846-1922)", Britten Journal of Botany, 61:30-31
FRS Balfour, 1922, "Henry John Elwes (1846-1922)", The Gardeners Chronicle, 72:319-320
Henry John Elwes (1846-1922), Colesbourne Gardens:
http://www.colesbournegardens.org.uk/HenryJohn.htm, accessed August 2010
Henry John Elwes (1846-1922), Lepidopterology:
http://www.lepidopterology.com/almanac/display.php?q=henry-john-elwes, accessed August 2010.