Record

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
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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

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