The Hon. Dame Miriam Louisa Rothschild DBE, FRS (5 August 1908 — 20 January 2005) was a British zoologist, entomologist and author. Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority, these are... The Fellowship of the Royal Society was founded in 1660. ... August 5 is the 217th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (218th in leap years), with 148 days remaining. ... 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... January 20 is the 20th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Zoology (Greek zoon = animal and logos = word) is the biological discipline which involves the study of animals. ... Entomology is the scientific study of insects. ...

Early life

Miriam Rothschild was born in 1908 in Ashton Wold, near Oundle in Northamptonshire, the daughter of Charles Rothschild of the famous Rothschild family of Jewish bankers and Rózsika Edle Rothschild (née von Wertheimstein), a Hungarian sportswoman. Her brother was Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild and her sister Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild (Baroness Nica de Koenigswarter) would later be a bebop jazz enthusiast and patroness of Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker. 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Map sources for Oundle at grid reference TL0388 Oundle is an ancient market town on the River Nene in Northamptonshire, England, with a population of 5,345 (2001 census). ... Northamptonshire (abbreviated Northants or Nhants) is a landlocked county in central England with a population of 629,676 (2001 census). ... (Nathaniel) Charles Rothschild (May 9, 1877 _ October 12, 1923) was an English banker and entomologist and a member of the Rothschild international financial dynasty. ... The Mayer Amschel Rothschild family (often referred to simply as The Rothschilds; German ; anglicized pronunciation ), is an eminent international banking and finance dynasty of German Jewish origin that established operations across Europe, and was ennobled by the Austrian and British governments. ... This article describes some ethnic, historic, and cultural aspects of the Jewish identity; for a consideration of the Jewish religion, refer to the article Judaism. ... For other uses, see Bank (disambiguation). ... Nathaniel Mayer Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild, CBE, GM, FRS (October 31, 1910 – March 20, 1990) was a biologist by training and a member of the prominent Rothschild family. ... Baroness Pannonica Nica de Koenigswarter (10 December 1913 – 30 November 1990) was a British bebop jazz enthusiast and member of the prominent Rothschild international financial dynasty. ... Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. ... Jazz is a musical art form that originated in New Orleans at around the start of the 20th century. ... Thelonious Sphere Monk (October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was a jazz pianist and composer. ... Charlie Parker Charles Bird Parker, Jr. ...

Miriam's father had described 500 new species of flea, and her uncle Lionel Walter Rothschild had built a private natural history museum at Tring. By the age of 4 she had started collecting ladybirds and caterpillars and taking a tame quail to bed with her. In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biodiversity. ... Families Tungidae â€“ sticktight and chigoe fleas (chiggers) Pulicidae â€“ common fleas Coptopsyllidae Vermipsyllidae â€“ carnivore fleas Rhopalopsyllidae â€“ marsupial fleas Hypsophthalmidae Stephanocircidae Pygiopsyllidae Hystrichopsyllidae â€“ rat and mouse fleas Leptopsyllidae â€“ bird and rabbit fleas Ischnopsyllidae â€“ bat fleas Ceratophyllidae Amphipsyllidae Malacopsyllidae Dolichopsyllidae â€“ rodent fleas Ctenopsyllidae Flea is the common name for any of the small... Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild (February 8, 1868 - August 27, 1937) was a British banker and zoologist from the international Rothschild financial dynasty. ... Map sources for Tring at grid reference SP924117 Tring is a small market town in the Chiltern Hills in Hertfordshire, England with a population of 13,000. ... Subfamilies Chilocorinae Coccidulinae Coccinellinae Epilachninae Scymininae Sticholotidinae etc. ... Genera Coturnix Anurophasis Perdicula Ophrysia † See also Pheasant, Partridge, Grouse Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds in the pheasant family Phasianidae, or in the family Odontophoridae. ...

World War I broke on the eve of Miriam's sixth birthday in 1914, while the Rothschilds were holidaying in Austro-Hungary. They hurried home on the first westward train but, unable to pay, had to borrow money from a Hungarian passenger who commented "This is the proudest moment of my life. Never did I think that I should be asked to lend money to a Rothschild!" {{Infobox Military Conflict |conflict = World War I |partof = |image = |caption = Clockwise from top: Trenches on the Western Front; a British Mark IV tank crossing a trench; Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the Battle of the Dardanelles; a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks... Year 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Austria-Hungary, also known as the Dual monarchy (or: the k. ...

Her father died when she was 15 and she became closer to her uncle. She received no formal education before the age of 17 when she demanded to go to school, but did not take a degree. A keen sportswoman, she played squash and cricket internationally. Squash racquet and ball Players in a glass-backed squash court International Squash Singles Court, as specified by the World Squash Federation // Squash is an indoor racquet sport which was formerly called Squash rackets, a reference to the squashable soft ball used in the game (compared with the harder ball... For the insect, see Cricket (insect). ...

1930s-1940s

During the 1930s she made a name for herself at the Marine Biological Station in Plymouth, studying the mollusc Nucula and its trematode parasites (Rothschild 1936, 1938a, 1938b). Because of her inherited wealth, she never had to apply for any grants or funding. As a result of this and her lack of formal education -- all her doctorates were honorary -- she would always be an "amateur". This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Plymouth is a city in the southwest of England, or alternatively the Westcountry, and is situated within the traditional county of Devon. ... Classes Caudofoveata Aplacophora Polyplacophora - Chitons Monoplacophora Bivalvia - Bivalves Scaphopoda - Tusk shells Gastropoda - Snails and Slugs Cephalopoda - Squids, Octopuses, etc. ... Orders not necessarily a complete list Azygiida Echinostomida Opisthorchiida Plagiorchiida Strigeata Strigeatida Trematodes are also known as flukes. ... Look up amateur in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Prior to World War II, she pressed the UK Government to admit more German Jews as refugees from Nazi Germany. During the war, she worked at Bletchley Park on codebreaking. Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... During World War II, codebreakers at Bletchley Park solved messages from a large number of Axis code and cipher systems, including the German Enigma machine. ... Cryptanalysis (from the Greek kryptós, hidden, and analýein, to loosen or to untie) is the study of methods for obtaining the meaning of encrypted information without access to the secret information which is normally required to do so. ...

Miriam Rothschild married Captain George Lane, MC in 1943, but their marriage was dissolved in 1957. She had two sons and four daughters. 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Science and entomology

Rothschild was a leading authority on fleas. She was the first person to work out the flea jumping mechanism. She also studied the flea's reproductive cycle and linked this, in rabbits, to the hormonal changes within the host. She wrote about 350 papers on entomology, zoology and other subjects. Families Tungidae â€“ sticktight and chigoe fleas (chiggers) Pulicidae â€“ common fleas Coptopsyllidae Vermipsyllidae â€“ carnivore fleas Rhopalopsyllidae â€“ marsupial fleas Hypsophthalmidae Stephanocircidae Pygiopsyllidae Hystrichopsyllidae â€“ rat and mouse fleas Leptopsyllidae â€“ bird and rabbit fleas Ischnopsyllidae â€“ bat fleas Ceratophyllidae Amphipsyllidae Malacopsyllidae Dolichopsyllidae â€“ rodent fleas Ctenopsyllidae Flea is the common name for any of the small... Genera Pentalagus Bunolagus Nesolagus Romerolagus Brachylagus Sylvilagus Oryctolagus Poelagus Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in many parts of the world. ...

Rothshild was a member of the Oxford genetics school during the 1960s, where she met E.B. Ford. She was one of the few women with whom E.B. Ford was on good terms. Rothshild campaigned with Ford for the legalisation of homosexuality. This article is about the British ecological geneticist E.B. Henry Ford. ... This article is about the British ecological geneticist E.B. Henry Ford. ... Homosexuality refers to sexual and romantic attraction between two individuals of the same sex. ...

Rothschild was involved with conservation in the UK, particularly of wild flowers and butterflies. She advised Prince Charles on plants at Highgrove. Five wildflower species A wildflower (or wild flower) is a flower that grows wild, meaning it was not intentionally seeded or planted. ... Families Superfamily Hesperioidea: Hesperiidae Superfamily Papilionoidea: Papilionidae Pieridae Nymphalidae Lycaenidae Riodinidae A butterfly is an insect of the order Lepidoptera, it belongs to either the Hesperioidea (the skippers) or Papilionoidea (all other butterflies) Superfamilies. ... Prince Charles may refer to: Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, current heir-apparent to the British throne Any of the previous British royals named Charles, Prince of Wales The former Belgian regent, Prince Charles of Belgium This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that... Highgrove is the country home of HRH The Prince of Wales, in Gloucestershire. ...

Rothschild was also the author of books on her father (Rothschild's Reserves – time and fragile nature) and her uncle (Dear Lord Rothschild).

Rothschild was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1985 and was made a Dame in 2000. She received honorary doctorates from eight universities, including Oxford and Cambridge. She gave the Romanes Lecture for 1984–5 in Oxford. The premises of the Royal Society in London (first four properties only). ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A statue of an armoured knight of the Middle Ages For the chess piece, see knight (chess). ... This article is about the year 2000. ... The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford, England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... The University of Cambridge, located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world, with a reputation as one of the worlds most prestigious universities. ... The Romanes Lecture is a prestigious free public lecture given annually at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. ...

Personality

Rothschild was known as an eccentric. She became a vegetarian, a teetotaller, eschewed make-up, and wore leather-free shoes and boots — moon-boots in winter, tennis shoes summer and white Wellington boots in the evening. She had red hair (though it later greyed), a bulky figure and wore a loose, mauve silk dress and matching kerchief — designed to "cut down on the need to make unnecessary choices". While being protective of Jews, she could not, however, accept Judaism, and was an atheist. In popular usage, eccentricity refers to unusual or odd behavior on the part of a person, as opposed to being normal. ... For animals adapted to eat primarily plants, sometimes referred to as vegetarian animals, see Herbivore. ... Teetotalism is the principle or practice of complete abstinence from alcoholic beverages. ... Cosmetics or makeup are substances to enhance the beauty of the human body, apart from simple cleaning. ... A pair of Wellington boots The Wellington boot, also known as a welly, a wellie, a gumboot or a rubber boot, is a type of boot based upon Hessian boots. ... Red hair (also referred to as auburn, ginger, or titian) is a hair color that varies from a deep red through to bright copper. ... Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. ... For information about the band, see Atheist (band). ...

References

• Rothschild, M (1936) Gigantism and variation inf Peringia ulvae Pennant 1777, caused by infection with larval trematodes. J. Mar. Biol. ASsn UK 20:537-46
• Rothschild, M (1938a) Further observations on the effect of trematode parasites on Peringia ulvae(Pennant) 1777. Novavit Zool. 41:84-102
• Rothschild, M (1938b) Observations on the growth and trematode infetions of Peringia ulvae (Penntant) 1777 in a pool in the Tamar saltings, Plymouth.

• Rothschild, M (1986) Animals and man : the Romanes lecture for 1984-5 delivered in Oxford on 5 February 1985. Oxford, Clarendon Press.

External links

• A Tribute to Miriam Rothschild: Entomologist Extraordinaire, Essays of an Information Scientist, Vol:7, p.120-127, 1984.
• Obituary - The Times, 22 January 2005.
• Obituary - Daily Telegraph, 24 January 2005.
• Obituary - Associated Press via Yahoo!, 25 January 2005.