| Activity | Extracted from Rosemary Lowe-McConnell's obituary in The Guardian, 29 Jan 2015
Rosemary Lowe-McConnell was fish ecologist, who diverted to the study of fish when the Colonial Service refused to employ female entomologists.
Her early fieldwork in Africa and South America made a significant contribution to the understanding of the taxonomy, evolution and ecology of tropical fishes. Her research on tilapia, an important food source for many communities in the developing world, provided a valuable basis for further studies of fish farming in tropical waters.
In 1945 the Colonial Service refused to employ female entomologists, so Ro diverted to ichthyology. Later, a female friend of hers was in fact employed as an entomologist by the service, which first consulted Fisheries; they reported that nothing “untoward had happened as a result of appointing a female” (Ro). On getting married in 1953, Ro was obliged to resign due to the marriage bar for women in place at the time.
Born in Liverpool, daughter of Mary and Harold Lowe, Ro grew up in Grassendale, close to the Mersey, and was a boarder at Howell’s school, Denbigh. Her father was Liverpool’s deputy director of education. Ro’s keen interest in her environment manifested itself early on in life. She enjoyed walking down to the shores of the Mersey to watch flocks of wading birds. The family kept a large variety of pets, ranging from stick insects to a donkey, and her father had an aquarium of tropical fish on the telephone table.
After completing a degree in zoology and botany at Liverpool University, Ro joined a team at the Freshwater Biological Association on Lake Windermere in the Lake District. Here she was involved in various projects aimed at producing wartime food from fresh waters.
In 1945, she was sent out to Malawi to set up a laboratory on Lake Nyasa, now Lake Malawi, to continue a fishery survey started there in 1938. The cichlid fishes in the lake were a vital source of protein for the local population and a sustainable fishery programme was needed. Before setting out, she had to learn how to use and repair field gear, to identify the different fish species in the lake, and to tackle the rudiments of the local language. Then began the long journey, accompanying 14 crates of heavy gear by ship, train and, finally, lorry to Malawi.
After a brief period in the UK, Ro returned to Africa in 1948, this time based in Jinja, Uganda, at the East African Fisheries Research Organisation, now the National Fisheries Resources Research Institute. Her main purpose was to study the biology of tilapia in the lakes of east Africa. Ro produced a large number of scientific papers, providing the basis for many later studies assessing the impact of fishing and other human activities on fish populations.
In 1953 she married Richard McConnell, a geologist with the British Geological Survey, in Uganda. Richard was posted to Botswana from 1954 to 1956. There Ro was able to study the fishes of the Okavango Delta. A further posting for Richard, to British Guyana from 1957 to 1962, was described by Ro as a wonderful opportunity for her to take part in a survey of the freshwater fish and fisheries of Guyana. Her personal account of life there is documented in her book Lad of Waters (2000). |