Alice Hutchings

Alice Hutchins (c. 1870 – 24 January 1944 ) was one of the two first women gardeners hired at Kew Gardens in 1896.

Education Hutchins trained at the Horticultural College for Women at Swanley in Kent after it began accepting women in 1891. Her studies were funded by a Kent County Council Scholarship. She received a College Diploma after the two-year program.

Kew Gardens Hutchins (right) with Eleanor Morland (left) and Gertude Cope at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1898 wearing their bloomer uniforms. In 1896, she and Annie Gulvin were the first women hired by Director William Thiselton-Dyer at Kew Gardens as "improvers". They initially wore the same uniforms as the male garden staff to ensure order and consistency.

In 1898, Hutchins was promoted to sub-foreman in the Alpine Pits section of the garden. Patterson received an M.B.E. in 1925. They remained involved in the Kew Guild even when they lived in Africa, Patterson serving as a Committee member and Hutchins attending yearly dinner events in London when she was nearby.

Hutchins died suddenly in 1944 while visiting her daughter in England. Her husband was still in Uganda and she would have returned to meet him there after the Second World War.

She is sometimes mistakenly named as "Alice Hutchings", but documents from the Kew Guild contemporary to her time there list her as Alice Hutchins. Later commentary by those who possibly knew her by her married name may be the cause of confusion.