Annie Lorrain Smith

Annie Lorrain Smith (23 October 1854 – 7 September 1937) was a British lichenologist whose Lichens was an essential textbook for several decades. She was also a mycologist and founder member of the British Mycological Society, where she served as president for two terms.

Early life and education Though born in Liverpool, she lived with her family in rural Dumfriesshire where her father Walter was Free Church of Scotland minister in Half Morton parish a few miles north of Gretna Green. Her mother was Annie Lorrain née Brown. She had several talented siblings, including the pathologist, Professor James Lorrain Smith. In 1921 Smith wrote the illustrated Handbook of British Lichens which was a key to all known British lichens. In the same year Lichens was published and was quickly established as a classic text.

Honours In December 1904 she was elected one of the first women Fellows of the Linnaean Society (others included Ethel Sargant and Margaret Jane Benson) after a change in the society's bye-laws.

Other information She was committed to the cause of women's suffrage and women's rights and enjoyed foreign travel. She lived with her older sister for 50 years and was affected by her death in 1933. Lorrain Smith retired in 1934 and died in London in 1937.

Eponymous taxa The lichenised fungus Verrucaria lorrain-smithiae was named after her by Matilda Cullen Knowles.

Selected publications

Smith, Annie Lorrain (1921). Handbook of the British lichens. British Museum.