Ethel Shakespear

Dame Ethel Mary Reader Shakespear DBE (17 July 1871 – 17 January 1946), née Ethel Mary Reader Wood, was an English geologist, public servant and philanthropist. She was born in Biddenham, Bedfordshire, the daughter of a clergyman. She was educated at Bedford High School and Newnham College, Cambridge (1891–1895), graduating in natural sciences. In 1896 she became assistant to Charles Lapworth at Mason College, Birmingham and began the preparation of her best-known work, British Graptolites, with her college friend Gertrude Elles. She was particularly responsible for the illustrations. This monograph was to become a standard palaeontological reference work for many years. She published a number of other works and was elected a Fellow of...