| Activity | Museum Staff: appointed temporary scientific assistant in Department of Botany 1 Oct 1951; assistant 1955; assistant experimental officer 1958; experimental officer 1962;
Pat was first assigned to the Pteridophyta section, under the leadership and guidance of A.H.G. Alston (1902–1958) but later transferred to the diatom section, headed up by Robert 'Bob' Ross (1912–2005).
Pat produced over 90 publications. Many were detailed monographs, most focused on revisionary taxonomy, and amongst these varied contributions were two books, one in honour of her friend and mentor, Bob Ross, Progress in diatom studies. Contributions to taxonomy, ecology and nomenclature. In honour of R. Ross, and the second, another labour of love, a guide to British diatoms, An Atlas of British Diatoms. A third book, A Handbook of Cretaceous Diatoms, for Cambridge University Press, was unfinished at her death, but due for completion early 2027.
In aggregate, Pat was responsible for over 300 taxonomic acts, which included the description of well over 40 new fossil diatom genera and countless numbers of species, all derived from a variety of unstudied fossil deposits. None of this would have been possible without her keen sense of the value of specimen collections and their active study and curation. Pat's legacy, then, is not just the published results, but the specimen collection preserved in our Museum for future researchers.
Pat was also a founding member, and first treasurer, of the International Society for Diatom Research
Extracts taken from NHM Intranet obituary posted 3 Jun 2026 and available in full from Museum Archivist - Sharepoint |