Chippindall, Lucy Kathleen Armitage ("Chipps")

Wife of A.O.Crook.

Lucy Chippindall, known usually as Chipps, worked, as a teenager, in a haberdashery department of a store in Pretoria. She then worked at the Botanical Research Institute, where her talents were recognised by one of the botanists. She went on to University and gaining a B.Sc. Chipps worked on grasses.

After her marriage to "Paddy" Crook and when they were living in Rhodesia she was asked to write the botanical section for a book. She spent three years away from home working on this, day and night, to complete the keys and descriptions. Chippendall, L.K.A. & Meredith, D. 1955. The grasses and pastures of South Africa. Central News Agency, Pretoria.

This was the standard work that was used for many years in South Africa. The book was out of print but for forty years or more the keys and detailed descriptions of the grasses produced by Chippindall were used by botanists and agriculturists to enable identification of these plants. The keys were excellent and arguably provided the basis for all future work on grasses in southern Africa.

After retirement from the Conservation Department in Rhodesia Paddy and Chipps Crook continued with their collection and identification of grasses mainly in the Umtali area. They were meticulous in their work that was published in Rhodesia. 240 Grasses of Southern Africa by LKA Chippindall & A.O. Crook (1976); M.O. Collins (Pvt) Ltd., Salisbury. The book was published in sections which were gathered into three volumes or files. Each grass with title, illustration and description occupied four approximately A5-sized pages. Paddy had worked out a system to reduce the botanical keys with what might be termed icons down the right hand margin on the third page of each grass. This work did not receive acclaim. Rather the original work that was produced nearly 30 years earlier was preferred, although by now there had been further research involving name changes.

Mr. and Mrs. Crook went to live in Cape Town in the 1980's where they had friends and connections with the Bolus Herbarium. Here they continued their study of grasses until their deaths. They were survived by one son.

The above biography contributed by Jane Browning.

The information below has been copied directly from Gunn, M. & Codd, L.E. 1981. Botanical exploration of southern Africa. Balkema, Cape Town.

Chippindall, Lucy Kathleen Armitage (later Mrs A. O. Crook) (1913-) b. Pretoria, 15 Feb. 1913; botanist; ed. St Mary's Diocesan School, Pretoria, 1919-29; Univ. of Witwatersrand, 1946-48, graduating B. Sc. Was a Technical Assistant in the Division of Botany, Pretoria, from 1931-45, specialising in the taxonomy of the Gramineae, and contributed (the largest) taxonomic section to The grasses and pastures of South Africa (1955). Since her marriage to A. O. Crook (q.v.) she has lived in Rhodesia, working for a time at the Government Herbarium, Salisbury. Together with her husband is producing a taxonomic treatment of the Grasses of Southern Africa in parts, from 1976.

Specimens c. 2,000; in SRGH, PRE, BOL.