| AdminHistory | Geoffrey Tandy was the first member of staff to specialise on the algae. He was appointed in January 1926 having read Forestry at Oxford, and was in post when Antony Gepp retired in 1927. Tandy remained at the Museum until September 1939 when he joined the Royal Navy, and did not return after the war. He was given special leave in 1928 and 1929 to act as botanist to the Great Barrier Reef Expedition, and again in 1931 to work on the Dry Tortugas, Florida. Most of his career at the Museum was spent working on the collections made on these two trips.
After Tandy's departure in 1939 algae, along with bryophytes and lichens, were the responsibility of Alan H Norkett, and it was not until Linda Newton (later Irvine) was appointed in 1950 that there was a separate Algae Section once again. She was succeeded by Yvonne Chamberlin (Mrs Butler) in 1954 and J H Price in 1963. Shirley Eskritt (Mrs Phillips) worked in the Alga Section from 1956 until she resigned in 1964/5.
References:
Tandy, G, 1929. The Great Barrier Reef Expedition, 1928-1929. Natural History Magazine, 2: 82-92.
Tandy, G, 1932. A summer at the Dry Tortugas Laboratory, Florida. Natural History Magazine, 3: 145-156. |