First Woman president of the Royal Horticultural Society RHS
October 2011, at home, Hergest Croft Gardens, Herefordshire
b.1941, Northamptonshire
Elizabeth Banks is a landscape architect and set up her own business in 1985 designing Rosemoor Gardens for the RHS 1987. She designed six Chelsea show gardens, five of which were awarded gold medals. She was elected first woman president of the Royal Horticultural Society in 2010, aged 69, its only female president to date since the society was founded in 1804. Banks was also the first professional horticulturalist to hold the role.