Notable Women in Science at the RAC/RAU

On International Women’s Day 2018 we decided to write about two ground-breaking women lecturers at this institution that deserve to be more widely known.

We know from Archives records that the first female students were only admitted to the RAU (formerly RAC) as recently as 1979. However, the first female lecturer here can be dated back to the 19th century! Her name was Eleanor Anne Ormerod (1828-1901), a British entomologist and natural historian.  Ormerod was a renowned expert on the turnip fly and other agricultural pests, and so became a ‘special lecturer’ at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester where she delivered six valuable lectures on insects between October 1881 to June 1884. The College was fortunate to have engaged the services of this eminent and busy researcher.

Eleanor Ormerod grew up at Sedbury Park in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, one of a family of ten children of the antiquarian George Ormerod (1785-1873). She was passionate about insects from childhood, and became an authority on “Injurious insects and farm pests”. Her works was honoured in time by the Royal Horticultural Society who awarded her the Flora medal, the Royal Agricultural Society who appointed her as consulting entomologist, the University of Moscow from whom she received silver and gold medals, and the Société nationale d’acclimatation de France who awarded her a silver medal.  She was also an examiner at the University of Edinburgh, and the first woman to be granted an honorary LL.D. at Edinburgh.

Eleanor often tested out the effect of insects on herself, for example:

“Miss Ormerod, to personally test the effect, pressed part of the back and tail of a live Crested Newt between the teeth. The first effect was a bitter astringent feeling in the mouth, with irritation of the upper part of the throat, numbing of the teeth more immediately holding the animal, and in about a minute from the first touch of the newt a strong flow of saliva. This was accompanied by much foam and violent spasmodic action, approaching convulsions, but entirely confined to the mouth itself. The experiment was immediately followed by headache lasting for some hours, general discomfort of the system, and half an hour after by slight shivering fits.” –Gadow, Hans 1909. Amphibia and Reptiles. Macmillan and Co. London.

From the late 1870s she published the results of her research in a series of pamphlets and reports.  The practicality of her work was appreciated by farmers.  For example her advice on how to deal with the warble fly grubs, which burrow into the skin of cattle, was eminently down to earth, “…a dab of cart grease and sulphur applied to the infested area of the hide”. It was said to have saved half the cows in the country.

In our historical collection in the RAU Library we keep two books by Ormerod.

E. A. Ormerod in later life

The Handbook of insects injurious to orchard and bush fruits: with means of prevention and remedy 1898

A text-book of agricultural entomology: being a guide to methods of insect life and means of prevention of insect ravage for the use of agriculturists and agricultural students. 2nd edn 1892.

It took until 1975 for the next woman to be appointed to the staff of the RAC. This was Margaret Johns who was appointed lecturer in Animal Husbandry.  She was a graduate of Reading University and had been demonstrator and lecturer in Animal Production at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth before joining the RAC. As Sayce (1992) wryly notes, “Thjs was to break the mould of the all-male staff that had existed since the role of Miss Ormerod…”

The appointment was sufficiently unusual to merit an article in the Gloucestershire and North Avon Farmer magazine entitled “The Feminine Point of View”, and where when interviewed Margaret John was quoted as saying that although she had been told she had ‘invaded the last bastion of male chauvinism’ she also ‘never felt … that a woman lecturer was not wanted.’

She lectured to groups of up to 75 students, did tutorial work with small groups of students, and in the afternoons led farm walks on the College farms and others in the locality or organised visits to agricultural institutions.

We have chosen to honour these women because of the link with our University and for recognition of their work as pioneers, scientists and lecturers here.

You can read more about them in the book “The history of the Royal Agricultural University College, Cirencester” by Roger Sayce.
Sources:

Sayce, R. (1992)The history of the Royal Agricultural University College, Cirencester Alan Sutton Publishing

Webb, A (1976) The feminine point of view. Gloucestershire and North Avon Farmer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Anne_Ormerod