S.E. Tibet - Sherriff & Ludlow, 1934

During the 1930s Sherriff and Ludlow carried out a series of plant and bird collecting expeditions working eastward along the main Himalayan ranges.

Sherriff and Ludlow first met in Kashgar, Chinese Turkestan, where their shared love of ornithology, plants and travel led to a life-long partnership. They travelled widely in Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet collecting and documenting specimens. In 1933-34, they travelled to Tibet, Nang-kartse, Gyantse and back to India selecting over 500 plants and seeds; their collection included 69 species of rhododendron, 15 new to science.

George Sherriff self-funded most of his expeditions. He was one of the first plant collectors to send his samples back to the UK by air to Kew and to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh. The major areas of his interest lay in collecting new specimens of rhododendron, primula and peony. Prior to meeting Sherriff in 1928, Frank Ludlow, having recently retired as Inspector of European Schools, was already collecting and documenting bird and plant species for the Natural History Museum. The two men carried out six expeditions together, and following their return to the UK, Ludlow would continue to work on cataloguing their joint collections at the Natural History Museum in London.