| Authorised form of name | Manton; Irene (1904 - 1988); plant cytologist |
| Dates | 1904 - 1988 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | 1 Earls Court Square, Kensington, London, England |
| Date of birth | 17/04/1904 |
| Place of death | Chapel Allerton Hospital, Leeds, England |
| Date of death | 31/05/1988 |
| Occupation | Plant cytologist |
| Research field | Electron microscopy |
| Botany |
| Cytology |
| Activity | Education:
Froebel Educational Institute, Kensington; St Paul's Girls' School, Hammersmith; Girton College, Cambridge (Natural Sciences tripos 1925 and 1926); PhD (1930)
Career:
Postgraduate work in the laboratory of Otto Rosenberg, in Sweden; Assistant Lecturer in Botany, Manchester University (1929) where she became interested in ferns; published 'Problems of cytology and evolution in the Pteridophyta' (1950); Professor of Botany, Leeds University (1946-1969); retired (1969); Honorary Fellow, Girton College (1985); bequeathed her collection of modern paintings to Leeds University
Memberships:
Pteridological Society (President 1971-1972)
FLS (President 1973-1976)
Foreign member Royal Danish Academy of Arts and Sciences |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 16/03/1961 |
| Age at election | 56 |
| Proposer | Helen Kemp Porter |
| Thomas Archibald Bennet-Clark |
| Arthur Roy Clapham |
| Edred John Henry Corner |
| Joseph Burtt Hutchinson |
| Kenneth Mather |
| Reginald Dawson Preston |
| Robert Brown |
| Dan Lewis |
| Relationships | Parents: George Sidney Frederick Manton, dental surgeon of London, and Milana Andele Teresed'Humy.
Siblings: Sidnie Milana Manton (FRS 1948), zoologist. |
| PublishedWorks | RCN 35351 |
| OtherInfo | Distinguished for her contributions to cytotaxonomy especially in relation to the evolution and geographical distribution of the Pteriodophyta.
Successfully elucidated the complex fine structure of flagella many years ago by skilful ultraviolet microscopy and these deductions have been fully confirmed and extended by electron microscopy in her own and other laboratories.
Made important comparative studies of plant motile organs using electron microscopy becoming an acknowledged leader in this field.
Classified 250 species of the Cruciferae on the basis of chromosome counting.
Received posthumous distinction, along with her sister, of having a feature on the planet Venus named the Manton crater.
Her family are descended from Charles Manton, chaplain to Charles II. |
| Royal Society Obituary or Memoir | Click to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices) |
| Related images | Discover a selection of related images in our picture library |
| Image | 
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| Source | Sources:
DNB
Obituaries:
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 1990 vol 35 pp 247-261, plate, by R D Preston |
| Code | NA5960 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| HWT/29/2/1 | Correspondence and papers regarding visits and exchanges to Mongolia | 1966 |
| IM/002968 | Manton, Irene | nd |
| EC/1961/16 | Manton, Irene: certificate of election to the Royal Society | 16 March 1961 |
| RR/54/37 | Referee's report by Reginald Ruggles Gates, on a paper 'Some new evidence on the physical nature of plant nuclei from intra-specific polyploids' by Irene Manton | July 1935 |
| IM/002969 | Manton, Irene | 1995 |
| RR/65/173 | Referee's report by Reginald Ruggles Gates, on a paper 'Evidence on spiral structure and chromosome pairing in osmunda regalis L' by Irene Manton | December 1938 |
| RR/65/174 | Referee's report by John Desmond Bernal, on a paper 'Evidence on spiral structure and chromosome pairing in osmunda regalis L' by Irene Manton | 1938 |