# Eleanor Bor

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{{Short description|British writer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2016}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix          =
| name                      = Eleanor Constance Bor
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| birth_name                = Eleanor Rundall
| birth_date                = {{birth year|1898}}
| birth_place               = [Moffat, Scotland](/source/Moffat%2C_Scotland)
| death_date                = {{death year and age|1957|1898}}
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| resting_place             = [Kew Gardens](/source/Royal_Botanic_Gardens%2C_Kew)
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| occupation                = Writer
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| spouse                    = [Norman Bor](/source/Norman_Bor)
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'''Eleanor Constance Bor''' ''née'' '''Rundall''' (1898 – 1957) was a British writer who is remembered for her book ''The Adventures of a Botanist's Wife'', which describes her travels in remote parts of north-eastern India and elsewhere.

==Biography==
She was born in [Moffat, Scotland](/source/Moffat%2C_Scotland) to Constance and John William Rundall, clergyman and headmaster of [St Ninian's School](/source/St_Ninian's_School%2C_Moffat).<ref name=RSE>[https://books.google.com/books?id=0OwrAQAAMAAJ Year Book of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1973]</ref> Her parents’ roots were in England, and she went to a small boarding school near London with one of her sisters.<ref>1911 census</ref> In her early thirties she lived in [Assam](/source/Assam) for two years<ref name=advent>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/adventuresofabot011400mbp|first=Eleanor |last=Bor|title=The Adventures of a Botanist's Wife|publisher= Hurst and Blackett|year=1952}}</ref> before marrying her husband, the botanist [Norman Bor](/source/Norman_Bor), in [Calcutta](/source/Calcutta) in 1931.<ref>[https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FGJZ-Q4F Marriage records]</ref>

Their life together started in Assam. As they moved around they undertook many adventurous expeditions, often in remote mountainous areas and including a visit to [Tibet](/source/Tibet). They also had one or two longer stays in established settlements. For Eleanor Bor, four years in [Dehradun](/source/Dehradun) were mainly spent writing and drawing as she and her husband did not enjoy the social life of a British [hill station](/source/hill_station).<ref name=advent/> During this time they twice went to [Lahaul](/source/Lahaul) "journeying deep into the mountains over high passes to the snowline"<ref name=tls>Sylva Norman, Botanists on Quest, The Times Literary Supplement, 25 July 1952, p487</ref> on ponies, and Bor wrote three books, apparently never published.<ref name=advent/> She sketched in many different locations and carried crayons on her travels.<ref name=advent/>

When they went home on leave they travelled through other parts of India, Malaya, Hong Kong and the USA.<ref name=hubbard>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/4102866 Norman Loftus Bor (1893-1972), C. E. Hubbard, Kew Bulletin, Vol. 30, No. 1 (1975), pp. 1-10 ]</ref> They returned to live in the UK in 1946,<ref name=hubbard/> and a few years later Bor's book was very well received.<ref name=obit>Times obituary, 17 April 1957</ref> Reviews praised the energy and vividness of the writing as well as the quality of the author's drawings included in the book.<ref name=turrill>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/4109328 W. B. Turrill, Botanizing as It Should Be, Kew Bulletin, Vol. 7, No. 3, 1952, p294]</ref><ref name=hubbard/><ref>Review quotes in publisher's ad in The Times Literary Supplement, 8 August 1952, p519</ref><ref name=RSE/> Her originality was emphasised by critics,  as was her sympathetic interest in the local people in the different places she went to.<ref name=turrill/><ref name=obit/><ref name=tls/>

Norman Bor named a grass he discovered after her: ''Poa eleanorae'' Bor<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/journalofbo5119521953bomb#page/80/mode/2up Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, Vol 51, p80-82]</ref> She described it as an "emaciated, wizened looking affair, apparently of intense interest to a botanist".<ref name=advent/>

At the end of her life she had a "distressing" illness and her husband nursed her until her death in 1957.<ref name=RSE/> Her ashes were scattered in the [azalea](/source/azalea) garden at [Kew Gardens](/source/Royal_Botanic_Gardens%2C_Kew), like her husband's after her.<ref name=hubbard/>

==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bor, Eleanor}}
Category:20th-century British women writers
Category:20th-century British writers
Category:1898 births
Category:1957 deaths
Category:British women travel writers
Category:People associated with Lahaul and Spiti district
Category:20th-century British travel writers

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Eleanor Bor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Bor) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Bor?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.