Eleanor Mary Reid
| Eleanor Mary Reid | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Eleanor Mary Wynne Edwards 13 November 1860 Denbigh |
| Died |
1953 Denbigh |
| Cause of death | Cerebral thrombosis |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | researcher |
| Known for | Palaeobotanist |
| Spouse(s) | Clement Reid |
Eleanor Mary Reid (born Eleanor Mary Wynne Edwards) (1860 – 1953) was a British palaeobotanist known for her studies of prehistoric plant life. She worked firstly with her husband, Clement Reid, and then with Marjorie Chandler.
Life
Eleanor Mary Wynne Edwards was born on 13 November 1860 in Denbigh She was the daughter of John and Maria Wynne Edwards. She became a physicist and obtained a third class BSc at London University in 1886. She taught physics and maths at the prestigious Cheltenham Ladies College. She became very interested in the fossilised remains of plants which she studied with her husband Clement Reid. They married in 1897 and then worked together to establish that plants could be reliably identified. He was a trained botanist and geologist who had experience in this field.[1] He published Origin of the British Flora in 1899 and he mentioned her help in gathering nearly 100 samples from deposit near West Wittering.[2] It was the two of them who were creditted with establishing that "floras could be reliably reconstructed from sources rich in fossil fruiting organs".[1]
By 1907 they were publishing joint papers and after about a dozen they wrote on "Pliocene floras of the Dutch–Prussian border" in 1915 which was an important publication. Her husband died the following year, but Reid's interest continued. The attic in her home in Milford-on-Sea became Reid's base from where she worked. After gaining money from the Geological Society's Murchison fund in 1919[3] she published her monograph on Pliocene floras in 1920.[1] She was one of four women who became fellows of the Geological Society that year[4] and she established a new lifelong scientific partnership and friendship. Her new scientific collaborator was Marjorie Chandler who had obtained a first class degree in the natural sciences at Cambridge University the year before.[1]
Chandler and Reid researched pre-historic plants by using the collection of the British Museum. After six years the published Bembridge Flora which was an extensive description of Cainozoic Plants and particularly those growing historically on the Isle of Wight. Their second volume together was published by the two companions in 1933 and this looked at the fossilised plants of the clay of London. Reid's attic was their laboratory in frozen winter's and hot summers and they enjoyed few luxuries. In both of these volumes it was Reid who used their findings to describe the changing climatic conditions in the Tertiary period evidenced
by the changing plants seen in minerals of different ages. The changing shape and construction of seeds and fruits through the ages gave new evidence of the evolutionary changes that takes place within plants. Reid and Chandler's studies showed that the land now known as London had at one time been part of a tropical forest.[1] Reid devised many new techniques for extracting the samples from material such as peat.[2] Reid was recognised for this work when she was awarded the Lyell Medal in 1936 by the Geological Society.[5]
From 1933 it was Chandler who took the lead working of Tertiary floras although Reid continued to dependably support Chandler and to write the occasional short paper. Chandler's finances were dependent on a small grant from the British Museum that were awarded each year. Chandler obtained her master's degree in 1948. Chandler was recognised internationally as she extended the work she and Reid had done as partners to other aspects of the Eocene and Oligocene periods. Chandler's own research described Dorset, Bournemouth and it created a supplement to their London Flora which ran to hundreds of pages. A noted publication was The Lower Tertiary Floras of Southern England.
Reid found more time to serve local causes including the church and the school. Reid found time to read the work of travel writers and to cycle into her eighties. Chandler eventually became her nurse and she died on 28 September 1953 in Milford-on-Sea from a cerebral thrombosis.[2]
The standard author abbreviation E.Reid is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.[6]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 Mary R. S. Creese, ‘Reid , Eleanor Mary (1860–1953)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2011 accessed 6 October 2015
- 1 2 3 Marilyn Ogilvie; Joy Harvey (16 December 2003). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century. Routledge. pp. 385–386. ISBN 978-1-135-96343-9.
- ↑ Geological Society, Retrieved 6 October 2015
- ↑ Cherry Lewis; Simon J. Knell (1 January 2009). The Making of the Geological Society of London. Geological Society of London. p. 385. ISBN 978-1-86239-277-9.
- ↑ The Geological Society website list of winners, Retrieved 6 October 2015
- ↑ "Author Query for 'E.Reid'". International Plant Names Index.
External links
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