Mary Gillham

Mary Gillham
Gillham was one of 13 botanists celebrated at the 'Inspirational Botanists – Women of Wales' exhibition in 2012.
BornNovember 26, 1921
London Borough of Ealing, England
DiedMarch 23, 2013(2013-03-23) (aged 91)
NationalityBritish
Known forEnvironmental activism, wildlife conservation, writing, lecturing at university

Mary Eleanor Gillham MBE (26 November 1921 – 23 March 2013) was a British naturalist, university lecturer, and writer, who was resident for many years in Gwaelod y Garth and then Radyr, in Cardiff, Wales until her death.

Although born in a London suburb, and serving five wartime years in the Women's Land Army working on multiple farms,[1] Mary Gillham spent much of her time in Wales. As a post-war student in the University of Wales at Aberystwyth and Bangor, she gained a degree in agriculture, a first-class honours in botany, and a PhD in island ecology.[2] She lectured in the universities of Exeter (Devon), Massey (New Zealand), Melbourne (Australia), Kano (Nigeria), and worked in the Adult Education Department at University College Cardiff from 1961 until her retirement in 1988.[3]

As a teacher of adult amateur naturalists, she saw her role as an interpreter of scientific data for the layman, and took to writing books and popular articles. Spray-washed seabird colonies were her main love, and research on these took her to remote islands in many parts of the world, where she has lived in tents, huts, lighthouses, etc. Her major research projects were around the coasts of West Wales (her PhD thesis), Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, and she was one of the first women scientists to join an Antarctic expedition (in 1959/60).[4][5]

In 1970, she undertook a research project on Aldabra in the Indian Ocean, and subsequently took naturalists to the Seychelles.[3] In 1979, she was visiting scientist on an American expedition (by sailing ship) to an uninhabited island in the Bahamas, and she took parties to Jamaica, New England, and the Rocky Mountains. Other expeditions were to North, West, East, and Central Africa, and Florida, and she led groups to various parts of Britain and Europe. Active in various natural history and conservation bodies over several decades, Gillham was president of the Glamorgan Naturalists' Trust and of the Cardiff Naturalists' Society.

In 2008, Gillham was awarded an MBE for services to nature conservation in South Wales.[6]

  1. ^ Gillham, Mary (1998). "Tenderfoot Cow Hand: Berkshire". Town Bred, Country Nurtured. J & P Davison. ISBN 0-9534074-0-3.
  2. ^ Mary Gillham – her Life and Times – the first 80 years, Cardiff Naturalists. Retrieved 21 December 2016
  3. ^ a b "Mary Shows the Write Stuff at 88". Wales Online. 5 February 2010. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  4. ^ "The Project". Mary Gillham Archive Project. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  5. ^ "The Women of Macquarie Island". Antarctica. 28 March 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  6. ^ "Cardiff Naturalists' Society – Mary Gillham MBE". cardiffnaturalists.org.uk. Retrieved 20 December 2016.