Born on March 29, 1901, Elizabeth Seymour Rawlinson was the only child of Lionel Seymour Rawlinson and his wife Anne Elizabeth Cochran (1859–1931).[3][5] Her father, the son of George Rawlinson (1812–1902), an eminent historian, and his wife Louisa Chermside, was a nephew of Sir Henry Rawlinson (1810–1895), an eminent Egyptologist, and a first cousin of General Henry Rawlinson (1864–1925), the commander of the Fourth Army of the British Expeditionary Force at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.[7]
Elizabeth Rawlinson's father, a British aristocrat, came to America at the age of 22 to visit his uncle, Walter Chermside. She lived with her parents at Herringstone, near Staunton, Virginia.[3] She completed her schooling from Stuart Hall School and St. Hilda's Hall, Charles Town, West Virginia.[3] She was inspired by her mother who was a member of the Augusta garden club. During her childhood, she showed interest in collecting rare shrubs, wildflowers, crocuses and other bulbs.[3]
She was a self-taught horticulturalist who explored many of the natural areas in Virginia and other places to collect plants.[4] Some of these areas include Shenandoah National Park, Magnolia Springs, Stingy Hollow, Franklin Hollow, Briary Branch, Spring Pond, and Cold Springs bog.[2][3] During her trips to southeastern Augusta, she was accompanied by Ruskin Freer, the editor of Claytonia.[3]
Her writings on botanical topics were given top billing as a regular columnist in The New York Times.[2] She also published articles in House & Garden and other horticultural journals including Claytonia, a Virginia botanical journal published by the Virginia Academy of Science.[2]
Between 1928 and 1936, she served as the director of the new plant material at the garden club of Virginia.[4] She was associated with numerous garden clubs and its events.[3] In 1935, she won five first-place awards for her flowers and flower arrangements during the Augusta garden club spring flower show.[3][4]
A reference library, established by the Augusta garden club at the Staunton public library in 1946, was named after her.[2]
Her herbarium collections have been archived at the Virginia Tech arboretum.[3]
She died on July 19, 1942, of cancer.[3][4]
