Frances Wolseley was born in Pimlico, London, as the only child of Sir Garnet Joseph Wolseley, later Baron Wolseley of Cairo and Viscount Wolseley, commander-in-chief of the British army, and his wife, Louisa Erskine. She was educated privately. She was also presented at court, but rejected marriage and the conventions of her upper-class background in favour of gardening education.
Gardening and writing
The family settled at Trevor House, Glynde in 1899, where she could pursue her interest in gardening and other country pursuits. The gardening college she founded in 1902 moved five years later to a five-acre teaching garden outside the village, at Ragged Lands. Glynde College for Lady Gardeners offered two-year courses that were featured in the magazine Country Life in November 1909. It prospered until the end of the First World War, although it continued to operate until 1933. About 1907, Wolseley became less involved with day-to-day college management, in favour of promoting the idea of women being professionally involved with horticulture. Her wider campaign in support of gardening led to a successful book, Gardening for Women, which described ways women could support the rural economy through horticulture. She toured gardens and horticultural colleges in England, Canada and South Africa in that period. She was admitted into the Worshipful Company of Gardeners of the City of London in 1913. In the same year she inherited the viscountcy from her father and then moved to Massetts Place near Lindfield, West Sussex with her mother. There Wolseley's most important book, Women on the Land was written. It covers organization of smallholdings and market cooperatives, women's institutes, and gardening as a subject for schools. Her other titles included In a College Garden, described the work of the College, and Gardens, their Form and Design, which stimulated the emergence of landscape architecture as a discipline a decade later. She moved in 1920 to Culpepers, Ardingly, West Sussex. Her later works mainly covered local history.
Bequest
The Viscountess Wolseley, died on 24 December 1936 at Culpepers, Ardingly, Sussex following a long illness. She was buried at St Andrew's, Beddingham, East Sussex. She bequeathed her books and papers to Hove corporation, with funds for improving the library and setting up a Wolseley room. The material is retained in Hove Library special collections. A biography describing her work appeared in 1939 by Marjory Pegram, The Wolseley Heritage: the Story of Frances Viscountess Wolseley and her Parents. As she never married or had children, the Wolseley title became extinct upon her death.
