Barbara Everard (1910–1990)

Barbara Everard, née Beard, was born at Telscombe Manor, near Brighton in Sussex, England, the eldest daughter of Charles and Rosalie Beard.

In 1936, according to sources, she went to work at a fake antique business in London, where she learned to make fake Chinese wallpapers. She was commissioned to work at Fortnum & Mason to create murals and decorate tea tables. She also designed a curtain for the Dominion Theatre and touched up furniture, fabrics, and gilding in the homes of wealthy individuals. She also took night classes at the Ealing School of Art. In 1938, she married Raymond Wallace Everard. Shortly after their wedding, her husband was appointed to an assistant-manager's job in Singapore, then part of the British colony of Malaya. However, he had not told his employers he was married. so Barbara was forced to stay behind in England for two years. In 1942, during World War II, Singapore was captured by the Japanese and Raymond Everard was taken prisoner. Barbara and her son escaped on the last boat to successfully evade the Japanese and returned safely to England.

Raymond survived the war, and following a short repatriation to England to recuperate, returned to Malaya to help open up rubber plantations for Dunlop. Barbara joined him there in 1946, and began collecting and painting tropical plants and orchids. She started painting large watercolour still lifes to brighten up the bare walls of drab bungalows. She began to exhibit at flower shows in Singapore, Malacca and Kuala Lumpur, expanding her collection of living plants and her portfolio.
In 1952, Barbara returned to England with her husband and exhibited a collection of studies of Malayan orchids at the Royal Horticulture Hall in London. She was awarded the first Grenfell Gold Medal. At subsequent Royal Horticultural Society exhibitions, she would be awarded many more.

She embarked on a 30-year career as a commercial botanical artist, completing many private commissions of floral paintings together with illustrations on a number of coffee table books, botanical publications, gardening magazines, greetings cards, and commemorative plates. In 1975, with a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship, she travelled back to Malaysia to create botanical paintings of endangered plant species.

Her autobiography, Call Them the Happy Years, was published in 2011. A number of Barbara's paintings and drawings have been donated to various botanical societies, including some 250 plates and sketches given to the Library and Archive at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.