Nicholas Vladimir Polunin (26 June 1909 – 8 December 1997) was a British botanist, environmentalist, arctic explorer and writer.
Biography Polunin was born on 26 June 1909 in Checkendon, Oxfordshire to Vladimir Polunin, a scenographer, set designer and educator, and Elizabeth Polunin, an artist and theatre designer. The eldest of four siblings, Polunin was brother of the botanist Oleg Polunin, the piano teacher Tanya Polunin (1921–2009) and the physician Ivan Polunin. Educated at Latymer Upper School, Polunin later enrolled at Christ Church, Oxford in 1928 to study botany and ecology. Graduating with his Bachelor's in 1932, Polunin later earnt his Master's from Yale University in 1934.
Personal life On 26 August 1939, married Helen Catherine Adeline Lovat Fraser (–1973) a writer and the daughter of Claud Lovat Fraser and Grace Inez Crawford. Polunin and Fraser had one son before later dissolving their marriage in 1947. Polunin later married Helen Eugenie Campbell on 3 January 1948, with whom he had three children.
On 8 December 1997, Polunin died in Geneva, Switzerland.
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