RHS President honoured
1 August 2011
President of the Royal Horticultural Society Elizabeth Banks has received an honorary degree from the University of Greenwich.
She was awarded the degree of Doctor of Design (HonDDes) in a ceremony at the Greenwich Campus on 18 July.
Elizabeth is a landscape architect renowned for her pioneering work on both historic and contemporary gardens. She gained a Diploma in Landscape Architecture from Thames Polytechnic (later to become the University of Greenwich) in 1980, and so the degree ceremony marked her return to the institution where she began her career.
Among her many international projects, she designed the gardens of the British Chancery Paris, advised on the gardens of the British Embassy in Paris, worked on new public squares in Boston and designed the garden at Fox Farm, Massachusetts.
Elizabeth’s work in the UK has focused on the design of large scale landscapes and gardens such as Foxcote Estate, Hinxton Hall, Wormsley, Belvedere Farm and Fort Belvedere, as well as historic landscape restoration and management plans for Rycote Estate, Goodwood Park and Chevening. Together with her husband, Lawrence, she now manages Hergest Croft Gardens, which extends over more than 70 acres.
In 2010 she became the first woman to be elected to the role of President of the Royal Horticultural Society in its 206-year history.
Honorary degrees are awarded to individuals of distinction who have made a major contribution to the work of the university, or who have earned prominence for activities associated more widely with education, business, culture, creative work and public service.