Ethel Sargant

Ethel Sargant (28 October 1863 – 16 January 1918) was a British botanist who studied both the cytology and morphology of plants. She was one of the first female members of the Linnean Society and the first female in their council, as well as President of the Federation of University Women.

Ethel Sargant
Born(1863-10-28)28 October 1863
Died16 January 1918(1918-01-16) (aged 54)
Sidmouth, England
NationalityBritish
Alma materGirton College, Cambridge
Known forSignificant research in botanical science
Scientific career
FieldsCytology and morphology of plants
InfluencedAgnes Arber

Early life

Sargant was born on 28 October 1863, and was the third daughter of barrister Henry Sargant and his wife Catherine Emma Beale. She studied at North London Collegiate School under Frances Mary Buss at a time when all girls schools were considered an "adventurous experiment"[1] and from 1881 to 1885 at Girton College, Cambridge.[2] Her sister Mary Sargant Florence was a painter and feminist, while her brother Sir Charles Sargant was a senior judge.

Career

A list of Sargant's publications is provided in an article in the Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History.[3] Sargant spent some years doing botanical work at home while she cared for her mother and sister,[3] but she also worked for Dr. D.H. Scott at Jodrell Laboratory in Kew Gardens from 1892 to 1893.[3]

She worked with Margaret Jane Benson, head of the Department of Botany at Royal Holloway College, and travelled with her throughout Europe in 1897 to acquire equipment and knowledge to set up that school's laboratory.[4]

To combine her caring responsibilities and academic pursuits, Sargant ran the "Joderal Junior" laboratory in the grounds of her mother's house in Reigate.[3] She employed Ethel Thomas (1897-1901) and Agnes Arber (1902-3) as research assistants.[5] For the following years she specialised in seedling anatomy, giving a course of lectures on botany at the University of London in 1907.

In 1904, Sargant was one of the first women to become a fellow of the Linnean Society of London, and the also became the first female on their council.[6]

After the deaths of her mother and sister, she moved to live at the Old Rectory in Girton village in 1912.[3] She was elected an Honorary Fellow of Girton College in 1913 and was President of the Federation of University Women in 1918. She was the President of the Botanical Section at the British Association meeting at Birmingham in 1913.

During World War I, she organised the register of university women qualified to do work of national importance, which was afterwards taken over by the Ministry of Labour.

Ethel Sargant died in Sidmouth on 16 January 1918.[7]

After death

She bequeathed her botanical library and bookcases to Girton College. The Ethel Sargant Studentship for research into Natural Sciences was endowed by friends in her memory in 1919.[8] Some of the reprints and monographs she collected and bound by subject are now housed in the Plant Sciences Library, University of Cambridge. Her obituary was written by Agnes Arber.[2]

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See also

References
  1. "Ethel Sargant.1". New Phytologist. 18 (3–4): 120–128. 1 March 1919. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.1919.tb07296.x. ISSN 1469-8137.
  2. Arber, Agnes (1919). "Ethel Sargant". New Phytologist. 18 (3–4): 120–128. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.1919.tb07296.x.
  3. Arber, Muriel A.; Stearn, William T. (1 January 1968). "List of Published Works of Agnes Arber, E. A. N. Arber and Ethel Sargant". Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History. 4 (7): 370–384. doi:10.3366/jsbnh.1968.4.7.370. ISSN 0037-9778.
  4. Joyce Harvey and Marilyn Ogilvie, The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-Twentieth Century, Volume 1 (Google eBook), p. 116, Taylor & Francis US, 2000.
  5. Schmid, Rudolf (1 December 2001). "Agnes Arber, née Robertson (1879–1960): Fragments of her Life, Including her Place in Biology and in Women's Studies". Annals of Botany. 88 (6): 1105–1128. doi:10.1006/anbo.2001.1553. ISSN 0305-7364.
  6. "Miss Ethel Sargant". Nature. 100 (2518): 428–429. 1 January 1918. doi:10.1038/100428b0. ISSN 1476-4687.
  7. "The Late Miss Ethel Sargant". The Times. 23 January 1918. p. 17. Retrieved 20 January 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Girton College Register 1869-1946, University Press, Cambridge, 1948
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