Miriam Rothschild

Dame Miriam Louisa Rothschild DBE, FRS (5 August 1908 — 20 January 2005) was a British zoologist, entomologist and author.

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Early life

Miriam Rothschild was born in 1908 in Ashton Wold, near Oundle in Northamptonshire, the daughter of Charles Rothschild of the famous Rothschild family of Jewish bankers and Rózsika Edle Rothschild (née von Wertheimstein), a Hungarian sportswoman. Her brother was Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild and her sister Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild (Baroness Nica de Koenigswarter) would later be a bebop jazz enthusiast and patroness of Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker.

Miriam's father had described 500 new species of flea, and her uncle Lionel Walter Rothschild had built a private natural history museum at Tring. By the age of 4 she had started collecting ladybirds and caterpillars and taking a tame quail to bed with her.

World War I broke on the eve of Miriam's sixth birthday in 1914, while the Rothschilds were holidaying in Austro-Hungary. They hurried home on the first westward train but, unable to pay, had to borrow money from a Hungarian passenger who commented "This is the proudest moment of my life. Never did I think that I should be asked to lend money to a Rothschild!"

Her father died when she was 15 and she became closer to her uncle. She received no formal education before the age of 17 when she demanded to go to school, but did not take a degree. A keen sportswoman, she played squash and cricket internationally.

1930s-1940s

During the 1930s she made a name for herself at the Marine Biological Station in Plymouth, studying the mollusc Nucula and its trematode parasites (Rothschild 1936, 1938a, 1938b). Because of her inherited wealth, she never had to apply for any grants or funding. As a result of this and her lack of formal education -- all her doctorates were honorary -- she would always be an "amateur".

Prior to World War II, she pressed the UK Government to admit more German Jews as refugees from Nazi Germany. During the war, she worked at Bletchley Park on codebreaking.

Miriam Rothschild married Captain George Lane, MC in 1943, but their marriage was dissolved in 1957. She had two sons and four daughters.

Science and entomology

Rothschild was a leading authority on fleas. She was the first person to work out the flea jumping mechanism. She also studied the flea's reproductive cycle and linked this, in rabbits, to the hormonal changes within the host. Her New Naturalist book on parasitism (Fleas, Flukes and Cuckoos) was a huge success. Its title can be explained as: external parasites (eg fleas), internal parasites (eg flukes) and others (the Cuckoo is a 'brood parasite). The Rothschild Collection of Fleas is now part of the Natural History Museum collection, and her catalogue of the collection is a master-work.

Rothshild was a member of the Oxford genetics school during the 1960s, where she met E.B. Ford. She was one of the few women with whom Ford was on good terms. Rothshild campaigned with Ford for the legalisation of homosexuality. ^[1]

Rothschild was involved with conservation in the UK, particularly of wild flowers and butterflies. She advised Prince Charles on plants at Highgrove.

Rothschild was also the author of books on her father (Rothschild's Reserves – time and fragile nature) and her uncle (Dear Lord Rothschild). She wrote about 350 papers on entomology, zoology and other subjects.

Rothschild was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1985 and was made a Dame in 2000. She received honorary doctorates from eight universities, including Oxford and Cambridge. She gave the Romanes Lecture for 1984–5 in Oxford.

Personality

Rothschild was known as an eccentric. She became a vegetarian, a teetotaller, eschewed make-up, and wore leather-free shoes and boots — moon-boots in winter, tennis shoes summer and white Wellington boots in the evening. She had red hair (though it later greyed), a bulky figure and wore a loose, mauve silk dress and matching kerchief — designed to "cut down on the need to make unnecessary choices". While being protective of Jews, she could not, however, accept Judaism, and was an atheist.

References

1. ^ http://www.oundlechronicle.com/articles/features/197/ Dame Miriam Rothschild, obituary from the Oundle Chronicle (accessed on 6 May 2007)

• Rothschild, M 1936. Gigantism and variation inf Peringia ulvae Pennant 1777, caused by infection with larval trematodes. J. Mar. Biol. Assn UK 20, 537-46.
• Rothschild, M 1938a. Further observations on the effect of trematode parasites on Peringia ulvae (Pennant) 1777. Novavit Zool. 41, 84-102.
• Rothschild, M 1938b. Observations on the growth and trematode infetions of Peringia ulvae (Penntant) 1777 in a pool in the Tamar saltings, Plymouth. [where?]

Books

• Rothschild, Miriam and Clay, Theresa. 1953. Fleas, flukes and Cuckoos: a study of bird parasites. The New Naturalist series, Collins, London.
• Rothschild, Miriam. 1983. Dear Lord Rothschild: birds, butterflies and history. Hutchinson, London. (ISBN: 086689019X)
• Rothschild, Miriam and Farrell, Clive. 1985. The butterfly gardener. Joseph, London.
• Rothschild, M. 1986. Animals and man: the Romanes lecture for 1984-5 delivered in Oxford on 5 February 1985. Oxford, Clarendon Press.
• Rothschild, Miriam et al. 1986. Colour atlas of insect tissues via the flea. Wolfe, London.
• Rothschild, Miriam. 1991. Butterfly cooing like a dove. Doubleday, London.
• Rothschild, Miriam and Marren, Peter. 1997. Rothschild's Reserves: time & fragile nature. Harley, London. (ISBN: 0946589623)
• Miriam Rothschild, Kate Garton, Lionel De Rothschild & Andrew Lawson 1997. The Rothschild Gardens: a family tribute to nature. Abrams, London.
• Hopkins GHE and Rothschild, Miriam. 1953-71. An illustrated catalogue to the Rothschild collection of fleas &c. Quarto, five volumes, British Museum (Natural History).
• George Stebbing-Allen, Martin Woodcock, Stephen Lings and Miriam Rothschild. 1994. A diversity of birds: a personal voyage of discovery. Headstart, London. (ISBN: 1859440002)
• van Emden, Helmut F and Rothschild, Miriam. Insect and bird interactions (ISBN: 1898298920)