Kathleen Sampson

Kathleen Sampson (23 November 1892 – 21 February 1980) was an English mycologist and plant pathologist, with a focus in herbage crops and cereal diseases. She was a leading authority on smut fungi growing in the British Isles.

Early life Sampson was born on 23 November 1892 in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. She received her Bachelor of Science from Royal Holloway College, University of London in 1914. During her study Sampson was awarded the London University Gilchrist Scholarship for Women in 1913, and the Driver Scholarship for Botany in 1914 as well as being awarded the Driver essay prize in 1914. She graduated with her Masters in Science in 1917 She was a member of the British Mycological Society for sixty years, serving as President in 1938. Her presidential address to the society is entitled Life cycles of smut fungi. Upon her retirement, Sampson moved to Aylesbury, Buckinghampshire where she set up a garden and bird sanctuary. When she died in 1980 she donated most of her estate to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.