Edith Philip Smith FLS FRSE (9 March 1897 – 17 May 1976) was a botanist and teacher who became a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Head of the Botany Department at Queen's College, Dundee (now the University of Dundee).
Career She was one of the first female graduates to receive a degree at the University of Oxford when the first women's graduation ceremony was held there in 1920.First Oxford Women Graduates - Historic Ceremony, The Times, 15 Oct 1920, p7 She studied at Somerville College, and in June 1920 passed exams in the School of Natural Science with first-class honours, leading to a BA.(Following the Oxford custom a BA not a BSc.) University Intelligence, The Times, 28 June 1920, p10 She then spent a year at Radcliffe College, Massachusetts, and undertook research in the plant physiology laboratory at Harvard. Next came a period in the Department of Botany at King's College London. In 1925 she was awarded a PhD from the University of Edinburgh.University of Edinburgh Journal, Volume 27, p325 The following year, 1926, she was appointed as a lecturer in botany at University College, Dundee, which at that time was part of the University of St Andrews.The Scotsman, 28 June 1926
Over the next decade Smith published various botanical papers, a textbook and an ecological report of a 1933 expedition to South Rona with scientific colleagues. She spoke about her survey of the island at a meeting of the British Association in Aberdeen. The report was illustrated with several of her own photographs. She told a newspaper that she was "official photographer and cook" for the South Rona team.Aberdeen Journal, 3 September 1934, p6 She created her own "lantern slides" for lectures, both for university lectures and for numerous talks to the public and to local associations, reported in the Dundee newspapers.Local newspapers from the late 1920s onward, searchable in archives like britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk One article said she was "well known as a brilliant and entertaining lecturer".Dundee Courier, 20 January 1938 p7 She was also an exhibiting member of the Society of Scottish Artists.Dundee Courier, 9 October 1943
In 1932 she started the Dundee Soroptimist Club, a group for professional women interested in good citizenship and service to others. Smith was the first president,Dundee Evening Telegraph 24 May 1932 p4 and in 1935 she was elected president of the National Union of Soroptimist Clubs of Great Britain and Ireland. After a year she resigned that post for health reasons.Dundee Courier, 16 April 1936
She was awarded a Doctor of Science degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1941 after presenting a thesis called Stelar Structure in the Dicotyledons.The Scotsman, 13 December 1941, p6 Around the same time she addressed the Royal Society of Edinburgh on Studies in the Vascular Anatomy of Trees and Herbs.Scotsman 2 December 1941 She became a fellow of the Society in 1953 and two years later was appointed Head of the Department of Botany at the recently restructured Queen's College, Dundee.Archives Hub: Edith Philip Smith, F.R.S.E., Lecturer in Botany She retired in 1960 and died on 17 May 1976. A collection of her papers are held by the University of Dundee's Archives.
Family Edith Philip Smith was born in Stirling on 9 March 1897, the eldest child of Edith Abbot Philip and James Cruickshank Smith CBE LittD LLD.Birth and census records At that time J.C.Smith was Rector of Stirling High School, but for most of his career he was a senior chief inspector of schools as well as a literary scholar.Death of Eminent Scots Scholar, The Scotsman, 8 Nov 1946 p4 The family moved away from Stirling in 1899 and lived in Glasgow, Perth and Fife. Smith's obituary described his wife as "sister of Lady Beveridge". Lady Beveridge was the name after her second marriage of Jessie (aka Janet) Thomson Mair née Philip.John Davis, ‘Mair, Lucy Philip (1901–1986)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, OUP 2004 One of her children was anthropologist Lucy Philip Mair, a first cousin of Edith Philip Smith. Her mother and aunt were amongst the children of a well-educated Dundee joiner and builder running a successful business.
One of Edith's three sisters, Amy Moir Philip Pantin née Smith, trained as a zoologist, then became a doctor and member of the Medical Women's Federation.Archives: Medical Women's Federation She was married to the zoologist Carl Pantin.James Beament, ‘Pantin, Carl Frederick Abel (1899–1967)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, OUP 2004
Bibliography 1922 Comparative Studies on Respiration XXII. The Effect of Lactic Acid on the Respiration of Wheat, American Journal of Botany, Vol. 9, No. 6, pp307-310 1922 A Note on Conjugation in Zygnema, Annals of Botany 1924 The Effect of General Anaesthetics on the Respiration of Cereals. I. Carbon Dioxide Production, Annals of Botany 1927 The origin of adventitious growths in coleus, Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh 1927 The anatomy and propagation of Clematis, Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh 1928 A Comparative Study of the Stem Structure of the Genus Clematis, with special reference to Anatomical Changes induced by Vegetative Propagation, Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh 1930 Flower colours as natural indicators, Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh 1932 Experimental biology, Oxford 1933 The calibration of flower colour indicators, Protoplasma 1934 The Vegetation of South Rona, The Scottish Naturalist, no.210
Not a complete list.
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