Names on the buses

817 Mary Merrifield

Connections with Brighton and Hove : Mary Merrifield was a natural history collector from Brighton who became a leading expert in botany. Born Mary Watkins in London in 1804, she was the daughter of barrister Sir Charles Watkins. She married trainee barrister John Merrifield in 1827 who moved to Brighton after qualifying. She started her career in the academic community by translating and publishing the works of the 15th century Italian painter Cennino Cennini. Merrifield wrote several more books on art and dress history and was awarded a civil pension of £100 in 1857 for services to art and literature. She also wrote many papers for scientific journals. During her last few years in Brighton, she helped to arrange the natural history galleries at the museum. She also learned Danish and Swedish so that she could keep up with botanical research from these countries and she had a species of marine algae named after her. Following her husband’s death in 1877, she moved into her daughter’s home in Cambridge and died in 1889. Her collection went to the Natural History department of the British Museum.

817 Mercedes Streetdeck on Route 1 - carried name since December 2016. Route 1 branding removed in November 2020. Repainted into new standard livery in May 2021.