Madeline Agar

[9] Fanny Wilkinson resigned as the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association's landscape gardener in 1904 to become the first female Principal of Swanley Horticultural College, which had recently converted to teaching only women.

[10] The MPGA had been established in 1882 by Lord Brabazon (later the 12th Earl of Meath) to take advantage of the recently enacted Open Spaces legislation, which permitted the conversion of disused burial grounds into parks and gardens for public recreation.

Whilst still working for the MPGA, in 1918 Agar taught a new course in landscape gardening at Swanley Horticultural College.

Agar's time at Swanley occurred during the troubled period between Fanny Wilkinson's first retirement in 1916 and her return in 1921, and Agar left, continuing to teach some of her students (including Colvin) privately.

After a long retirement, she died in 1967, aged 93, in St George's Nursing Home, Milford-on-Sea, in Hampshire.