| Authorised form of name | Rothschild; Dame; Miriam Louisa (1908 - 2005); naturalist, entomologist, and conservationist |
| Dates | 1908 - 2005 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Ashton Wold, Ashton, near Oundle, Northamptonshire, England, United Kingdom |
| Date of birth | 05 August 1908 |
| Place of death | Ashton Wold, Ashton, near Oundle, Northamptonshire, England, United Kingdom |
| Date of death | 20 January 2005 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Funeral service: Liberal Jewish Synagogue, St John's Wood, London, England, United Kingdom ( 7 April 2005) |
| Occupation | Zoologist; Writer; Gardener; Farmer; Campaigner; Parasitologist |
| Research field | Conservation |
| Zoology |
| Parasitology |
| Entomology |
| Small animals |
| Botany |
| Activity | Education:
At home; evening class in zoology, Chelsea Polytechnic
Career:
Studied the mollusc Nucula and its trematode parasites at Marine Biological Station, Plymouth (1930s); editor of 'Novitates Zoologica', Tring Museum journal (1938-1941); worked as a code-breaker at Bletchley Park during WW2; worked on rabbit flea; published 'Fleas, Flukes and Cuckoos' (1952) with Theresa Clay; published 'Catalogue of the Rothschild Collection of Fleas in the British Museum', volumes I to IV (1953-1983); served on Government advisory committee on myxomatosis (1954); consulted by The Prince of Wales and helped to sow wild flower meadow at Highgrove; wrote 'The Butterfly Gardener' (1983) with Clive Farrell; gave the Oxford University Romanes Lecture, "Animals and Man" (1985); created Schizophrenia Research Trust (1962); Trustee, Natural History Museum (1967-1975); member of Entomological Club; opened National Dragonfly Museum in old mill on her Ashton Wold estate (1996); died from heart failure at home and birthplace.
Memberships:
Royal Entomological Society (President 1993–1994)
Awards/Medals:
Royal Horticultural Society gold medal 1951
American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1973
A J Waley Medal and Victoria Medal of Honour
Linnean Society Bloomer Award
Lynn Society's Floral Medal
Royal Entomological Society's Wigglesworth Gold Medal
Honours:
CBE 1982; DBE 2000 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 21/03/1985 |
| Age at election | 76 |
| Relationships | Parents: Nathaniel Charles Rothschild, merchant, banker, and conservationist, younger son of 1st Lord Rothschild and Rozsika von Wertheimstein, third daughter of Colonel Alfred von Wertheimstein, landowner and army officer from Nagyvárad, Austria–Hungary.
Siblings: Nathaniel Mayer Victor Rothschild (FRS 1953); Nica de Koenigswarter, musical patron; Liberty Rothschild.
Uncle: Lionel Walter Rothschild (FRS 1911)
Spouse: (14 August 1943) Captain George Lane MC, marriage dissolved (1957).
Children: (Mary) Rozsika (1945–2010); Charlotte (b. 1951); Charles (b. 1948); adopted at birth another daughter, Johanna (b. 1951); adopted Jane and Benjamin, the two children of her friend Gay Fischer, following his death in 1955. |
| PublishedWorks | RCN 11808
RCN 19515
RCN 19528
RCN 11835
RCN 13155
RCN 10736
RCN 15801
RCN 10507
RCN R82902
RCN R82903
RCN 52673
RCN R83744
RCN 10646
RCN 13524 |
| OtherInfo | Distinguished for her work on Siphonaptera, protective coloration (especially in Lepidoptera) and chemical ecology.
Made fundamental and diverse advances in our knowledge of protective coloration and mimicry, in particular on selection for scarcity of numbers, the reversal of cryptic colour-phases in pupae of Pieridae, the significance of size and of early emergence in models and an analysis of the position of warning colours on the bodies and wings of mimetic species.
In the area of chemical ecology, she initiated a new field of animal/plant interactions involving toxic substances (collaborating with Reichstein and others on chemical and pharmacological aspects of the work).
Leading authority on fleas and the first to figure out the flea's jumping mechanism.
In the late 1930s she worked with several organizations dedicated to helping Jewish children escape from Germany and Austria, many of whom were given a safe refuge at Ashton Wold.
Strongly supported animal welfare and social causes, such as the decriminalisation of homosexuality.
Funding from the Lisbet Rausing Charitable Trust, a Miriam Rothschild chair of conservation biology was endowed at the University of Cambridge in 2006. |
| 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 |
| Source | Obituaries:
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 2006 vol 52 pp 315-330, plate, by Helmut F van Emden and Sir John Gurdon
Obituaries in Telegraph (24 January 2005); Independent (24 January 2005)
Sources:
Mariana Cook 'Faces of Science' 2005 Photograph and her account of how she becme a scientist in her own words |
| Code | NA193 |