Isobel Wylie Hutchison

Isobel Wylie Hutchison (30 May 1889–20 February 1982) was a Scottish Arctic traveller and botanist. She also wrote poetry, books on her travels and articles in various geographic magazines. She painted many scenes from her adventures.

Hutchison was born at Carlowrie Castle in West Lothian, the third of five children of Thomas Hutchison (1841-1900) and Jeannie Wylie (1847-1931). Her uncle was Robert Hutchison of Carlowrie FRSE. Her grandfather Thomas Hutchison (1796-1852) had been Provost of Leith and was well-established in the wine wholesaling trade, and his father-in-law had been a successful farmer; his wealth enabled him to spend a great deal of time with Isobel, teaching her about botany and gardening. She also received a private education from a governess, and was very active physically at croquet, tennis, archery, skating, hiking, cycling, Scottish country dancing and walking.

From 1900, she attended school in Edinburgh, where she studied a curriculum suited for a Victorian gentlewoman. After her sister married a naval officer and saw very little of him for long periods, Isobel decided that marriage would restrict her life. Her father died when she was ten years old, but he left equal provision for all of the children with trusts, and so she was independent for the whole of her life.

Hutchison confessed to wanting to be a poet and started writing while young. She kept diaries assiduously from 1903, and edited "The Scribbler", a magazine created by the family, which she continued to write even into her twenties. A polyglot, by the time she was an adult she could speak Italian, Gaelic, Greek, Hebrew, Danish, Icelandic, Greenlandic and some Inuit words.

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