Evelyn Vida Baxter

LLD Legum Doctor (Latin: “teacher of the laws”) (LL.D.) or, in English, Doctor of Laws, is a doctorate-level academic degree in law or an honorary degree, depending on the jurisdiction. The double “L” in the abbreviation#Plural forms, abbrev ...

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

FLS FZS

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(29 March 1879 - 1 October 1959) was a Scottish naturalist and

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

, and the first woman to receive

Union Medal of the British Ornithological Union The Union Medal is a medal of the British Ornithologists' Union, given "in recognition of eminent services to ornithology and to the Union and ornithology." From 2019 it is to be known as the "Janet Kear Union Medal", after Janet Kear, with a new ...

Life

Baxter was born on 29 March 1879 to John Henry Baxter and his wife at Gilston, Fife. She took an interest in natural history and especially in

bird migration Bird migration is the regular seasonal movement, often north and south along a flyway, between breeding and wintering grounds. Many species of bird migrate. Migration carries high costs in predation and mortality, including from hunting by ...

, and after being encouraged by Eagle Clarke in 1905, she and her life-long friend

Leonora Jeffrey Rintoul Leonora Jeffrey Rintoul FRSE (1878-1953) was a Scottish ornithologist and rare female member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In authorship she is known as L. J. Rintoul and is closely associated with her "constant partner" and co-author E. V. ...

(1878-1953) took up bird studies at the

Isle of May The Isle of May is located in the north of the outer Firth of Forth, approximately off the coast of mainland Scotland. It is about long and wide. The island is owned and managed by NatureScot as a national nature reserve. There are now no ...

. They studied the movements of birds for 20 years leading to several publications, including ''The Birds of Scotland'' in 1953. Baxter's obituary notes that in Rintoul, Baxter found "a kindred spirit and inseparable companion". With Rintoul, H F D Elder, and George Waterston, Baxter was one of the co-founders the

Scottish Ornithologists' Club The Scottish Ornithologists' Club (SOC) is a Scottish ornithological body, founded in March 1936 at the premises of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. As of 2008, the SOC has 2,200 members. The Club runs the Scottish Birds Records Committee ...

on 24 March 1936. The pair served jointly as President and then Honorary Presidents. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

she volunteered with the

Women's Land Army The Women's Land Army (WLA) was a British civilian organisation created in 1917 by the Board of Agriculture during the First World War to bring women into work in agriculture, replacing men called up to the military. Women who worked for the ...

while also teaching at Sunday school where she was known as "Miss Evie". For her wartime work she was awarded an MBE in 1945. Along with Rintoul, Baxter became, in 1951, the only non-graduates out of eight women Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She became the first woman Vice President of the

British Ornithologists' Union The British Ornithologists' Union (BOU) aims to encourage the study of birds ("ornithology") and around the world, in order to understand their biology and to aid their conservation. The BOU was founded in 1858 by Professor Alfred Newton, Henry ...

and received their

Union Medal The Union Medal was instituted by the Union of South Africa in 1952. It was awarded to Permanent Force members of the South African Defence Force for eighteen years of service and good conduct.Alexander, E.G.M., Barron, G.K.B. and Bateman, A.J. ...

in 1959, the first woman to do so. In 1955 the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

awarded her the honorary of

Doctor of Laws A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL. ...

(LLD). She died at ''The Grove'', Kikton of Largo,

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

Publications

All these works were co-written with

*''The Birds of the Isle of May'' (1918) *''Some Breeding Scottish Duck'' (1922) *''The Geographical Distribution and Status of Birds in Scotland'' (1928) *''Birds of Scotland'' (1953)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baxter, EV Scottish ornithologists Women ornithologists 20th-century British women scientists 1879 births 1959 deaths Fellows of the Zoological Society of London Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Members of the Order of the British Empire Scottish women scientists Scottish science writers 20th-century Scottish women writers Scottish naturalists People from Fife