Evelyn Vida Baxter LLD FRSE FLS FZS MBE (29 March 1879 - 1 October 1959) was a Scottish naturalist and ornithologist, and the first woman to receive Union Medal of the British Ornithological Union.

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, and after being encouraged by Eagle Clarke in 1905, she and her life-long friend Leonora Jeffrey Rintoul (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 opposing ...

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 W ...

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 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 ...

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

Publications

All these works were co-written with Leonora Jeffrey Rintoul *''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