Abstract
Gertrude Elles gained worldwide renown for her seminal work with Ethel Wood on A Monograph of British Graptolites, which is still used today. She gained the MBE, pioneered female geological education, became the first female reader in Cambridge University and one of the first tranche of female Fellows of the Geological Society in 1919. An eccentric with a vast array of hats, PhD students and lodgers, she was a stalwart member of the Sedgwick Club and life member of the British Federation of University Women. She wrote obituaries for colleagues describing their achievements with humour and good nature. Her family describe her as ‘a fabulous woman’ with a huge range of interests including archaeology, botany and music. She related her geological and botanical knowledge in showing a nephew that plants growing along the Moine Thrust reflected change in the underlying rocks. Cambridge colleagues recall her as a ‘marvellous and well-respected figure’ who caused some amusement by her big old cluttered table from which she swept away material making room for new samples (and work for technicians). She died in 1960 in her beloved Scotland. However, her legacy survives in the classification of a group of fossils extinct for nearly 400 myr.
The well-documented career and achievements of Gertrude Elles (Creese and Creese 1994; Burek 2002, 2007, 2009, 2014; Creese 2004) establish her as a great geologist who was ahead of her time and had an enduring love of the outdoors, particularly the Scottish Highlands. Her outstanding contribution to the field of palaeontology was A Monograph of British Graptolites that she co-authored with Ethel Wood, and which is still widely used today. She was also an inspirational lecturer, always remembered for her enthusiasm, and as an advocate for women's education and advancement. From several personal accounts, she was identified as an amazing, slightly eccentric person with wide-ranging interests and knowledge. Her family called her ‘G’ and speak of her with pride. Cambridge colleagues called her Gertie (but not to her face!), and remember her with affection, respect and some amusement.
The ‘woolly hat’ in the title refers to one of the best-known photographs of her (Fig. 1), and because she had a vast array of hats. The reason for this collection was her appointment in the department in Cambridge, which required women to wear hats when lecturing (Burek 2007).
Gertrude Elles in the field in 1913. Image courtesy of the Sedgwick Museum archives.
Home and family
Gertrude Lilian Elles was born on 8 October 1872 in Wimbledon, and was the youngest of six children of an English mother and Scottish father. Her father Jamieson had gone to Hong Kong in about 1847, and by 1862 he had made a large fortune as a tea merchant, in particular by shipping a cargo of China tea to the southern states of America during the civil war. He left a partner in charge of his business, Elles and Co., in Hong Kong and returned to work from London. In 1864 he married Mary Chesney Pye, and he owned a large house in Wimbledon, which was then in the country.
In August and September every year, the family would go north to the Morenish Estate near Killen, under the shadow of Ben Lawers, which formed part of their grouse shoot. It was during these family holidays at the Morenish Estate that the young Gertrude developed her enduring love of Scotland, especially the Highlands, and for the rest of her life she regularly visited her Scottish relatives.
In 1881 the partner in Hong Kong absconded to America with £55 000. According to information from family papers (Duncan Boyd pers. comm. 2019), Jamieson, although under no legal obligation, personally made good all liabilities resulting from his partner's default. The financial crisis forced him to sell his large house and move to a smaller one in Wimbledon. Jamieson died in 1912, and his widow died in 1940 aged 96.
Later, in Gertrude Elles's obituary in the Newnham College roll letter, Alice Barbara White, a Newnham colleague, would write:
Her father's business connections with the Far East must have given her an awareness of things and places beyond her immediate horizon and fostered the essential wideness of her outlook; she enjoyed all varieties of country but her own earthly paradise was the Scottish Highlands. Many were the stories she would tell of her experience in the north and she liked to believe she possessed something of that extra sense claimed by the Highland people. With her blue eyes and mass of bright corn coloured hair, uncompromisingly brushed back into a tight businesslike bun, with her sturdy figure and clear, rather high-pitched voice, she became a well-known figure to many succeeding Cambridge generations
(White 1961, p. 46).
Early education
Gertrude Elles attended Wimbledon High School from the age of 13 (Fig. 2). Issues of the Wimbledon High School Magazine from 1889 to 1891 report that she was involved in many aspects of school life: she was secretary of the tennis club, sang in school concerts, was on the committees of the Library and Wimbledon High School Union, and was a member of the debating club.
Wimbledon High School 1891, with Gertrude Elles standing on the far right. Image courtesy of the Wimbledon High School archives.
Whilst it is reasonable to assume that her interest in natural sciences was an intrinsic part of her love of the outdoors, it is probable that her choice of specialism was influenced by geology classes, including field trips and museum visits, which were introduced into the school in 1887. The Wimbledon High School Jubilee Magazine, published in May 1931, included an article by Georgina de Lisle, a teacher and former pupil, who described how the school's geology collection was built up:
In the holidays, armed with a geological hammer and chisel, the members of the geological class collected specimens of any rocks and fossils they could – three of the same if possible; one for School, one to swop, and one for one's own collection. Great was the excitement of returning to school to offer our gifts and label our specimens. Of course all the enthusiasts collected. The collections I remember best were those of W. and M. Agar, and G. Elles. We often went to the geological museum in Jermyn Street, and to the geological section of the Natural History Museum, and there we could identify our specimens and learn many more. Miss McLeod, whose inspiring enthusiasm and unceasing energy never flagged, used to spend hours with different sets of girls labelling and classifying the specimens, and arranging the collection. Small wonder that many distinctions were gained in the examination; and that G. Elles [later] gained the Harkness Scholarship for Geology at Newnham. We had many interesting geological expeditions to gravel pits, chalk quarries, and railway cuttings. Members of the London Geological (Sic.) Association to which Miss McLeod belonged were very kind in conducting expeditions
(de Lisle 1931).
Miss McLeod, an early member of the Geologists’ Association (which had admitted women from its formation in 1858: Burek 2009), clearly had an infectious enthusiasm for geology, demonstrating the importance of an inspirational teacher acting as a role model.
The school magazines also record that Elles was already distinguishing herself as a scientist, as shown by the following examples (Wimbledon High School Magazine, issues from 1889 to 1930):
1889 – A ‘Science Circle’ formed, 33 members, G. Elles was Head of the Chemistry Section.
The ‘Company's Scholarship’ (Girls Public Day School Trust), an annual scholarship, awarded to G. Elles.
1890 July – G. Elles gained Distinction in Geology, Oxford and Cambridge Board Examinations.
1891 July – G. Elles gained Distinctions in Geology and Biology, Higher Certificate, Oxford and Cambridge Board examinations, and obtained scholarships to Newnham College (accepted), also Somerville Hall, Oxford and Bedford College, London.
It is clear that in pursuit of furthering her education she had a choice of scholarships, and finally accepted Newnham College, Cambridge, which would serve as her alma mater for the rest of her life.
Higher education and career
University of Cambridge
Gertrude Elles attended Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1891 to read Natural Sciences. There she met three other students interested in palaeontology and stratigraphy: Ethel Skeat, Margaret Crosfield and Ethel Wood. She remained a friend and a collaborative colleague with them for the rest of their lives (Burek and Higgs 2007). There are many examples in letters which have survived that show she was willing to help her colleagues, especially with identification of graptolites (Burek and Malpas 2007). These four women have become known as the Quartet of Palaeontologists (Burek 2014).
In 1895, Elles passed the Tripos with First Class Honours; however, Oxford and Cambridge refused to grant degrees to women no matter how well they did (Burek 2007). She eventually travelled in 1905 to Dublin to receive her DSc degree as one of the so-called Steamboat Ladies (Higgs and Wyse-Jackson 2007). Newnham remained her home though, and she joined a team researching Lower Paleozoic rocks and fossils based in the Woodwardian Museum (now the Sedgwick Museum).
While at Newnham she received a Harkness Scholarship (founded in 1885 under the will of Mrs Pearson) which was awarded triennially to the best candidate in an examination in Geology and Palaeontology. The scholarship was open to resident members of Girton and Newnham colleges ‘provided that proficiency be shown’. This enabled her to extend her research to Sweden, ‘sending home delightfully fresh, enthusiastic letters of her adventures’. (White 1961).
None of Elles's letters from Sweden have been traced, but the Wimbledon High School Magazine in 1897 includes an article written by her entitled ‘A glimpse of Sweden 1896’:
There was something very fascinating in the prospect of a wild plunge into a new country, and yet I remember a distinct feeling of excitement that was not unmixed with fear, when I found myself standing on the deck of the steamer “Ariosto,” really bound for Sweden at last. …the whole of it was so new to me and so different from anything I had ever experienced before that I enjoyed every moment of it. … It was with many feelings of regret that I turned my face homewards again, and I hope very much that at no very distant date I may once more find myself in the country whose delightful inhabitants I have learned to know and love so well
GERTRUDE ELLES, O.W. [Old Wimbledonian]
(Elles 1897).
Elles does not mention her research work in the article, as it was a school magazine. She focuses on life in Sweden which she found very different, but which she entered into with her usual enthusiasm and willingness to learn and adapt.
In 1901, with her Newnham colleague Ethel Wood and under Professor Charles Lapworth of Birmingham University, she was offered the chance to research on British graptolites. Two years later, in 1903, she became an Assistant Demonstrator in the Sedgwick Museum.
By 1918, after nearly 10 years of work and under the general editorship of Lapworth (Creese and Creese 1994), Elles and her friend Ethel Wood saw the completion of A Monograph of British Graptolites (Elles and Wood 1901–18). It was originally issued in 10 instalments between 1901 and 1914, and the title page and index were added in 1918. It remains the standard reference for graptolite research and is regularly cited, even up to the present day, with over 300 citations. Elles followed up the monograph with an analysis of evolutionary patterns in graptolites in ‘The graptolite faunas of the British Isles: A study in evolution’ published by the Geologists’ Association in 1922. This paper has been cited 94 times to date and shows the currency of her work even today. In 1923 she published a paper on the age of the Hirnant beds in central Wales in the Geological Magazine, and she continued a steady output of material every year. It is clear that Elles was always trying to help other researchers and was respected for this. For example, in 1925, again in the Geological Magazine, she published a series of Sedgwick Museum notes to help researchers with the classification of graptolites. In the abstract Elles explains her reasons for doing this:
It has become increasingly evident during the past few years that there are many geologists working on the older Palaeozoic rocks in various parts of the British Isles, to whom a knowledge of the common assemblages of graptolites characteristic of our different British graptolite zones might be useful. In the following lists, therefore, an attempt has been made to put together the facts gleaned from the study of the Graptolite Shales of the British Isles in many widely separated localities. The lists do not claim to be in any way a complete representation of the entire fauna of any zone, but merely an enumeration of those graptolites which in the author's experience are most universally and abundantly represented, so that they are likely to be the forms met with most characteristically in an exposure of any particular horizon
(Elles 1925, p. 22).
Although Elles is remembered for her research on graptolites, her work also concentrated on stratigraphy and she published more than 10 papers on Lower Paleozoic stratigraphy (e.g. Fearnsides et al. 1906–07; Elles 1909, 1922). In 1939 she published a paper entitled ‘The stratigraphy and faunal succession in the Ordovician rocks of the Builth–Llandrindod inlier, Radnorshire’ in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, working on material collected by a colleague between 1904 and 1906 (Elles 1939). She updated the maps and material with help from one of her students.
The continuing importance of her work is evidenced by ‘The Gertrude Elles Award’ introduced by the Palaeontological Association in 2018 ‘to promote high quality public engagement in the field of palaeontology’. In introducing the award, Paul Smith, president of the Palaeontological Association, referring to the graptolite monograph, wrote:
The work was encyclopaedic in its coverage of the group and beautifully illustrated, with Elles working on the text and Wood focusing on the illustrations. With the taxonomy standardized, a detailed biozonal scheme could be established and that, in turn, enabled the global correlation of Lower Palaeozoic rocks. The work, almost invariably referred to simply as ‘Elles & Wood’, continues to be a benchmark and standard reference tool a century later. In 1922, with the taxonomy stabilized, Elles followed up the monograph with an influential analysis of evolutionary patterns in graptolites – an early comprehensive treatment of an entire group
(Smith 2018, p. 36).
Elles was Vice Principal of Newnham College from 1925 to 1936, acting as Principal for one term, and in 1926 became the first female lecturer at Cambridge University. As a lecturer, she taught both men and women, and in this respect acted as a role model for other women.
Late in her career, Elles's mind turned to metamorphism. Now in her late 50s, she and Cecil Tilley reviewed the structure of her beloved Highlands and wrote ‘Metamorphism in relation to structure in the Scottish Highlands’, a paper which has been cited 97 times to date (Elles and Tilley 1931):
This entailed familiarising herself with new techniques and orientating her ideas to new patterns of thought. That she was able to do this and make her mark in the new field is proof of the vigour and flexibility of her mind
(White 1961, p. 48).
In 1936, at the age of 64, when many people would be thinking of retirement, Elles was the first woman to be given a readership in Cambridge University (Creese 2004). It seems incredible that women were contributing so much to the university but were not being accepted as full members. This was eventually rectified in 1948, and she took her doctorate the following year. She was 77 years old. Her great-niece Susan Laughton said:
I went up to Newnham in 1948 by which time Aunty G was of course quite old. That was the year women were at last made full members of the University. Not until then did she take her doctorate having refused a nominal degree. I went to watch the ceremony
(Susan Laughton pers. comm. 2019).
Sedgwick Club
Gertrude Elles was one of the first three female members of the Sedgwick Club (Fig. 3), the undergraduate geology society of the University of Cambridge. She joined in January 1896 along with Ethel Wood and Louisa Jebb. Ethel Skeat joined them 2 months later in March 1896.
Montage of Gertrude Elles from Sedgwick Club photographs created by Sandra Freshney. Image courtesy of the Sedgwick Museum archives.
Elles remained a stalwart member of the Sedgwick Club all her life (Burek 2007) attending nearly every meeting and reading seven papers between 1896 and 1905, nearly one a year for the first 5 years (Table 1). The main focus of her work was on graptolites and Lower Paleozoic stratigraphy. The breadth of the topics she presented is illustrated in Table 1. In November 1901, she gave a paper entitled ‘The tectonic structure of England & Wales’. She invited several students (Miss Hingston from Newnham College and Miss Williams from Girton College) to the talk in her rooms in College House, Grange Road. In May 1904 her paper on ‘The Highland lochs’ attracted six female students: three as members (Miss Slater, Miss Drew and Miss Pennycuick) and three as her guests (Miss Craske, Miss Caulkin and Miss J.M. Slater). The meeting took place in the Combination Room in Newnham College. Interestingly, several of the club meetings were held in what were considered to be male rooms (Table 1): for example, in 1896 in Sidney Sussex College and on 4 March 1902 in Mr Clark's rooms, 32 Bridge Street, when Miss Clark gave a talk on ‘Recent work on Trilobites’. This was certainly unusual at the time when Victorian society disapproved of free mixing of the sexes. Elles was present and perhaps acted as a chaperone as a Miss Robertson was also present as a member. Without Elles being there it would have been difficult for the ladies to attend a lecture in a private male residence (Table 1).
Gertrude Elles's contributions to the Sedgwick Club
Elles was instrumental in introducing other female students into the Sedgwick Club as guests, or by proposing or seconding them as members: she invited Miss Taylor, Miss Phillips and Miss Baker of Newnham College on 6 November 1900 to listen to her paper on ‘Notes on the geology of the St. David's district’; she seconded Ida Slater from Newnham as a member on 6 May 1902 (Minute Book of the Sedgwick Club Vol. VIII October 1899–1902); proposing Miss Franklin from Girton College in 1906 (Minute Book of the Sedgwick Club Vol. IX November 1903–06):
On Tuesday October 21st, 1913 in the big lecture room in the Sedgwick Museum … Miss Elles then proposed the following ladies to be members:
Miss Grant Girton, Miss A. B. Taylor Newnham, Miss E. Gardner Newnham
(Minute Book No. 11. 1911–1920 Sedgwick Archives).
Elles's participation in the Sedgwick Club was not restricted to her giving lectures. She was also interested in continuing her own education. She attended a lecture of the Sedgwick Club on 20 February 1935 listening to ‘Structures in the S. Pennines’ by Prof. Fearnside, in Dr Black's rooms in Trinity College. After this time her appearances at the Sedgwick Club became less as she became progressively more deaf. She attended the Sedgwick Club photograph of 1937 taken on 4 June at the Sedgwick Museum and looked at the specimens collected on the North Wales excursion.
Interestingly, she did not attend the paper by Dr Bulman given on ‘Recent work on graptolites’ in May 1938 at Emmanuel College. She was not present for the Sedgwick Club photograph in May 1940, 1941 or 1942. Her last Sedgwick Club photograph calls were on 4 June 1943 and 2 June 1944, when the annual teas were held at the Sedgwick Museum. Her attendance increased again towards the end of the World War II period. She was present in March 1944 at Professor King's house, 3 Newnham Walk, for a paper on ‘Loess’ given by Professor King. Later that year, in November 1944, she was present at a talk on ‘Breckland soils’ given by Dr Watt in Trinity College.
Through 1945 she attended presentations on ‘Pollen analysis in the North Sea basin’, as well as ‘Some methods of geological mapping for oil’ and the informal annual meeting. In 1946, now aged 74 years, she attended Professor Fred Shotton's talk on ‘Water supply in the Middle East campaigns’, showing her interest in what happened during World War II, and in March 1947 she attended Nancy Kirk's lecture on ‘The geology of part of the Church Stretton Fault Region’ at the Graduate's Club.
One of her last contributions to the Sedgwick Club was in November 1947, when she gave her own account of recent fieldwork along with four male colleagues and students.
In 1948 she attended the lecture on ‘Moine–Torridonian age problems’ given by Sir Edward B. Bailey. There was then a period of non-attendance at the Sedgwick Club. She gave her last talk to the Club in February 1951 when she spoke about ‘The Great Rift Valley of Africa’, aged 79 years.
Her penultimate attendance at other people's lectures was in May 1951 when she was present at Professor O.T. Jones's lecture on ‘The hill top surfaces of Wales’, which took place in Clare College. In January 1953 she did not attend the lecture by Miss Walker on the ‘Problems of graptolite growth’, a subject close to her heart, but was present in October 1953 to listen to her lodger, Jake Hancock, talk about ‘The variation in rocks of Chalk age’. This is her last documented attendance at the Sedgwick Club, only 7 years before her death.
Gertrude Elles had been an active member of the Sedgwick Club for over 67 years, giving over 18 talks on a vast array of subjects (Table 1). Her contribution to the success and running of the Sedgwick Club cannot be overestimated. She encouraged women into it as guests and members (remembering that there were restrictions on the number of female members, either three or later four). To keep the record straight, she supported not only female but also male students.
Thus, she was instrumental in helping other female students enjoy the freedom that the Sedgwick Club gave to its members through fieldtrips, lectures and networking. This was a unique organization in Cambridge at the time, allowing free mixing of the sexes and which in at least a couple of cases (Arbers and Woods) led to marriage between members (Burek, in press), although not for Elles herself.
Fieldwork and teaching
Fieldwork is essential to geology but in the early days of geological education, it was difficult for women to pursue this alone, without chaperones. With the advent of better transport, especially train travel, fieldwork became easier for women (Burek and Kölbl-Ebert 2007). Like several famous male geologists of the time, such as Professor McKenny Hughes and Sir Archibald Geikie (Burek 2018), Elles firmly believed field work was necessary for a good geological education and for high-quality research. Alice White records that:
[M]ost vacations found her in the country with map, hammer and lens… She was tireless, seemingly indifferent to the pangs of hunger or the ache of muscles that affected the students whom year after year she introduced to the fascination of collecting fossils and rock specimens as clues to the geological structure of a district
(White 1961, p. 46).
This description demonstrates that Elles's love of the outdoors and her enthusiasm for geology combined to make fieldwork a pleasure to which she devoted much of her free time.
As well as being an excellent researcher, Elles was ‘an inspiring teacher infecting students with her own enthusiasm’ (White 1961, p. 48). In her obituary in Nature, Professor Oliver Bulman pays tribute to her influence on students:
Few who have graduated in the Cambridge Department of Geology during this long period but were influenced by her enthusiasm as lecturer or supervisor; and many were drawn to Cambridge as postgraduate students to work under her direction. She inspired great affection among her colleagues, and as a teacher she will be remembered for her vitality, forthright manner and clarity of exposition
(Bulman 1960).
Involvement in college life
As at school, Elles was involved in many aspects of college life, including being President of Newnham College Natural Science Society, Vice-President of the Newham College Tennis Club, Lieutenant of Clough Hall Fire Brigade, a member of the Hockey Club Committee and patron of the choral society (Burek 2007):
Among her colleagues in the Combination Room she was perhaps a trifle too critical and outspoken to be beloved by all, but her sound sense and immense capacity for work, administrative as well as academic, ensured her taking her full share of college committee work. Yet she found time to watch University rugby football matches and March and June would find her on the towpath watching the racing eights with a critical and knowledgeable eye. The river especially had a great attraction for her, and for many years she used her own Canadian canoe for refreshing hours on the then unpopulated river
(White 1961, p. 47).
What is described by Bulman as Elles's ‘forthright manner’ is also mentioned by others who knew her, usually as an attribute but, as White recorded, it was not appreciated by everyone.
Elles's article in the Wimbledon High School Magazine about her Swedish experiences emphasizes the importance she put on outdoor sport as part of university life:
What struck me most, perhaps, was the entire absence of those games and athletics that are so dear to the heart of the British undergraduate. Imagine Oxford or Cambridge without their cricket clubs, football clubs and rowing clubs! The Swedish student it is true has his gymnastics, and in these he excels, but any amount of indoor exercise could never to my mind compensate for out-of-door games. This is, however, largely a matter of necessity, as the climate in winter is too severe to allow anything of the kind, and with the beginning of the hot weather the term ends, as in a Swedish summer it is far too hot for work
(Elles 1897).
Additional activities and contributions
The Geological Society of London
Elles's association with the Geological Society of London has been covered elsewhere (Burek 2009), but in this centenary volume it is appropriate to include some detail. The Geological Society had recognized her talents before women were admitted as members. Thus, in 1900 she was given an award from the Lyell Fund for her work on graptolites (Burek 2020). At that time, women were not even allowed to attend meetings, and the award was received on her behalf by Professor Thomas McKenny Hughes, who stated that she:
[Has] shown herself to be a clear-sighted stratigraphist and an astute palaeontologist over a much wider field than might appear, from the mention of the work for which this Award has been made
(McKenny Hughes 1900, p. 49).
In 1919 she was the first woman to be awarded the Murchison Medal, with the tribute ‘The Council desires to acknowledge the important and sustained efficiency of your efforts in advancing Geological Sciences’ (Lamplugh 1920, p. 44). On 21 May 1919 she was among the first group of women admitted as Fellows. It is a testament to her continuing influence that, at the conference to celebrate the centenary of first female Fellows of the Geological Society (21 May 2019), Gertrude Elles's great-niece, Fiona Earle, and great nephew, James Elles, were welcomed as honoured guests at the conference.
The British Red Cross Society
Elles was an active member of the Red Cross society and during World War I was commandant of a convalescent hospital for soldiers in Cambridge (Creese and Creese 1994). During this time, she continued teaching in the evening and kept in touch with College activities. In 1920 she was awarded the MBE in recognition of her services.
British Federation of University Women
Elles was a life member of the British Federation of University Women and pioneered female education. She valued the female interaction it gave her, especially as she worked in a mainly male-dominated area of science. She represented the Federation in national meetings as well as regularly attending her local Cambridge branch, meeting some of her geological friends. This involvement allowed her to extend her network and influence among women of a similar intellectual aptitude (Burek 2020).
Obituaries for colleagues
Elles lived a long life and many of her contemporaries predeceased her, including Ethel Wood (then Dame Ethel Shakespear). An extract from the obituary written by Elles as a tribute to her friend (Fig. 4), whom she describes as ‘a first class researcher’, gives an insight into the considerable work they both put into researching their monograph:
[T]hat the conception and inspiration of the monograph was all Lapworth's, much of the ‘spade work’ fell on his subordinates and it was often heavy. The nomenclature of the graptolites was in such a parlous condition that few records could be accepted, and almost all had to be checked, either in the field or in numerous visits to public and private collections. Those days of strenuous field work and consultation are now a treasured memory
(Elles 1946, p. 46).
Gertrude Elles (standing on the far left) and Ethel Wood (reclining on the far left) during fieldwork in the Malverns in 1892. Image courtesy of the Sedgwick Museum archives.
Other interests
Her Newnham colleague, Alice White, wrote a summary of Elles's career, recognizing that:
[I]f the record stopped here it would entirely fail to portray the woman who, with a world-wide reputation as a geologist, was also known to her many friends and students for other gifts, her flair for games and sports, her love and understanding of music, her delight in outdoor life and the countryside, her fund of downright and outspoken common sense, and her contempt for the pretentious and the superficial … In her room in Kennedy Buildings, characteristically crowded with a variety of objects which betrayed her range of interests, conversation would range from photography to philosophy, from hygiene to bagpipes, from kingfishers to polar travel, and ethical and social problems could be presented and discussed as easily and satisfactorily as those of a more scientific nature
(White 1961, p. 45).
This range of interests is a recurring theme in written records of Elles's life and in conversations with her family, who recall her love of music and her knowledge of a huge range of subjects including archaeology, biology and botany, portraying a ‘great all-rounder’ in the words of her great-niece Fiona Earle (pers. comm. 2019).
Personal reflections of family and colleagues
Obviously, the majority of people's personal memories of Elles are of her in her old age when she was profoundly deaf, even with her hearing aid, and less physically active than she had been. However, her mind remained sharp and her love of life undiminished. Don Bidgood, who lodged with her in her last 3 years between 1957 and 1960, describes her as ‘unusually active for her age in both mind and body’ (Don Bidgood pers. comm. 2019).
Her family called her ‘G’ and are very proud of her achievements. Throughout her life she visited relatives in Scotland, including her brother Edmund's daughter Cecil Howman and her family in Glenshee. Cecil's son Alastair remembers G's visits during the late 1940s and early 1950s. He described her as ‘a fabulous woman – highly thought of – a geologist without equal’. His family enjoyed her visits to their home, although she annoyed his father by getting to The Times first, which was a day late in reaching them anyway.
Alastair Howman recalled an occasion which inspired his interest in geology:
I wanted to learn to drive and G asked my father if she could teach me. He reluctantly agreed and off we went in our old Austin 10. We stopped by a bridge near Inchnadumph, G said, ‘I'm going to teach you some geology’ and told me to pick one of the bright coloured flowers by the bridge. She said they were orchids and told me to pick one from the other side of the bridge. When I got back and told her there weren't any she said ‘of course not, the soil is different because this is where two different rocks meet
(Alastair Howman pers. comm. 2019)
The explanation for the rock change and the exact location are not recalled but we suggest it was where the metamorphic rocks of the Moine Thrust are in juxtaposition with Cambrian Durness Limestone. The impervious metamorphics support a thick layer of peat on which orchids thrive. The limestone has only a thin layer of soil and orchids are intolerant of lime.
Alastair Howman also recalled a fishing trip on Drumore Loch:
We left G to sleep in the car then heard a horn going and realized it was our car. We went back to find G asleep on the horn she couldn't hear it because she was deaf, we couldn't move her and the horn wasn't connected to the ignition so we couldn't stop it. The result was a flat battery and a walk home to get help
(Alastair Howman pers. comm. 2019).
Gertrude Elles's Cambridge colleagues referred to her affectionately as Gertie (although not to her face!). Following her retirement in 1938 at the age of 66, she was made a Reader Emeritus (Burek 2007). She retained a room in the Sedgwick building and continued to supervise students. Cambridge colleagues remember her high-pitched voice, which from description had become louder and shriller as she lost her hearing.
She bought a house in Barton Road (which gave quick access across the hockey field to the Sedgwick) and she took in PhD students as lodgers. One such student, Don Bidgood, said, ‘Dr Elles (Gertie) was a great lady and it was a privilege to have known her’.
He recalls domestic life in Barton Road:
Arrangements were very informal and there were none of the restrictions in terms of access, visitors and use imposed in most Cambridge student lodgings at the time.
The do-it-yourself breakfast was in the kitchen with Dr. Elles making herself very strong café filter and recommending an egg as a good way to start the day.
By day she could be found in her large, south-facing, book-lined room enjoying the warmth of the sun, the services of her staff and the occasional visitor. In the evenings, which extended well into the night hours, she enjoyed sitting in her favourite chair in a corner of her room, close to the gas fire, reading a detective story.
She liked sharing stories from her past with her lodgers and their friends if they visited. These included memories from her youth when her father took his daughters mountain climbing in Scotland, the photographs showing the girls in long skirts and using alpenstocks. On occasion she displayed a magnificent silk ceremonial robe which her father wore when made a Mandarin of the Blue Button. The books on the shelves, reflected her interest in Antarctic Exploration and her recollections of Scott, and Shackleton suggested that she may have known them well
(Don Bidgood pers. comm. 2019).
Bidgood's insights show that her love of life and interest in supporting students was undiminished in her later years.
Peter Friend, who was a student in 1954 and is still based at the Sedgwick, said, ‘We were all very proud of Gertie; she was a marvellous figure’. He remembers when people gathering in the common room of the Sedgwick building saw her approaching:
Someone would say ‘Gertie's here,’ there would be a curfuffle as technicians got her into the old open lift and up to her room on the top floor of the building. On the way up she conversed with them in her loud shrill voice which broadcast round the building, sometimes making critical remarks about senior members of the department, much to the amusement of the students
(Peter Friend pers. comm. 2019).
Susan Laughton, her great-niece who went up to Newnham in 1948, said, ‘Auntie G was very untidy, when I visited her she would say ‘just sit anywhere;’ difficult as every chair was covered in books’ (Susan Laughton pers. comm. 2019).
Peter Friend and Don Bidgood both recall Elles's big old T-shaped table on which material piled up, including rock samples sent by people for her opinion. As she leaned forward pushing her arm across her desk to make room for new material, it acted as a conveyor belt, and older items fell off the other side. Technicians retrieved the samples which had been sent in and returned them to their owners. The rest remained, covering the floor with a thick layer of books, specimens and papers. Elles had a reputation for borrowing specimens from the collection and resisting the curators’ efforts to get them returned. When the long-suffering technicians cleared her room after her unexpected death, they were able to return many missing items to the collection and library (Peter Friend and Don Bidgood pers. comm. 2019).
Another PhD student, Jake Hancock (1928–2004), while working under Maurice Black between 1952 and 1955 on chalk, stayed with her for 3 months. He recalls her room in Cambridge as untidy and full of fossils, papers and other objects, all piled up high on the floor and her desk. He remembers cleaning ammonites in the lounge and that was OK and regarded as a good use of the lounge by Gertrude Elles (pers. comm. 2003). It is clear from all the memories of her later years at Cambridge that her room was very cluttered, although there is no indication of her being untidy and disorganized in her earlier years.
Each autumn Elles was driven to Cambridge station and seen onto the Edinburgh train for her annual visit to Scotland. Don Bidgood recalls that sharing stories about these unescorted train rides were a source of delight to her and her friends (pers. comm. 2019). On 9 July 1960 she was a guest at Don Bidgood's wedding. That autumn she was seen off on the Edinburgh train as usual but did not return. Having lived life to the full, she died in her beloved Scotland on 18 November.
Having fallen in love with the Scottish Highlands as a child, Gertrude Elles excelled in science at school, including being an enthusiastic member of the geology classes. Her career at Cambridge University would be impressive by modern standards, even more so considering the barriers which needed to be overcome by women to gain advancement. The awards from the Geological Society demonstrate that her work was recognized on its merits which helped pave the way for the admission of women into the Society. She is fondly remembered by family and colleagues, and leaves a legacy in the classification of a group of fossils extinct for nearly 400 myr. We leave her dressed up and smiling at a happy occasion with wedding cake and a glass of champagne to hand (Fig. 5).
Gertrude Elles at her student lodger Don Bidgood's wedding reception on 9 July 1960. Image courtesy of Don Bidgood.
Acknowledgements
We thank Gertrude Elles's relatives for their enthusiastic assistance, Fiona Earle for coordinating the family response, Alastair Howman and Susan Laughton for their memories of ‘Aunty G’, and Duncan Boyd for information from family papers; Peter Friend and Don Bidgood, for sharing their memories of ‘Gertie’ during their student days, and Don Bidgood for the photograph of her at his wedding (Fig. 5); Sandra Freshney, the archivist for the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, for providing information and photographs, especially for creating the montage (Figs 1 & 3), and access to the Sedgwick Club Minute books; Kelly Jones, the Wimbledon High School archivist, for access to the school archives and providing the photograph (Fig. 2); Anne Thomson, the Newnham College Archivist, for providing archive documents.
Author contributions
JT: conceptualization (equal); CVB: conceptualization (equal).
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Data availability
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.
Archives
Newnham College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Wimbledon High School, Wimbledon, London, UK.
- © 2020 The Author(s). Published by The Geological Society of London. All rights reserved
References
Gertrude Elles: the pioneering graptolite geologist in a woolly hat. Her career, achievements and personal reflections from her family and colleagues
- Article
- Abstract
- Home and family
- Early education
- Higher education and career
- Sedgwick Club
- Fieldwork and teaching
- Involvement in college life
- Additional activities and contributions
- The British Red Cross Society
- British Federation of University Women
- Obituaries for colleagues
- Other interests
- Personal reflections of family and colleagues
- Acknowledgements
- Author contributions
- Funding
- Data availability
- Archives
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