Joyce Winifred Vickery (15 December 190829 May 1979) was an Australian botanist who specialised in

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

and became well known in Australia for forensic botany.

Early life and education

Joyce was born in the Sydney suburb of

Strathfield Strathfield is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 12 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre of the Municipality of Strathfield. A ...

. She attended the Methodist Ladies' College, Burwood, and went on to study at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

graduating B.Sc. in 1931. Following graduation she was made a botany demonstrator and worked on her Masters, which she received in 1933. She became a member of both the Linnean and Royal societies of New South Wales.

Career

Vickery was offered the position of assistant botanist at the National Herbarium of New South Wales in August 1936, she refused the position on the grounds that she would not be paid the same wage as a man with her qualifications.Claire Hooker
Vickery, Joyce Winifred (1908 - 1979)
Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 16, Melbourne University Press, 2002, pp 452-453. After negotiations which increased the pay offered, she accepted the position and was the first female researcher appointed to the New South Wales Herbarium. Lilian Ross Fraser and Vickery co-discovered

Lomandra hystrix ''Lomandra hystrix'', commonly known as green mat-rush, or creek mat-rush, is a perennial, rhizomatous herb found throughout eastern Australia. History Lilian Ross Fraser and Joyce Winifred Vickery first described Lomandra hystrix, which they ...

, which they published in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 62: 286 1937. At the herbarium she began work on plant taxonomy, her major project was the taxonomy of the large grass group

Gramineae Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and ...

and she received her D.Sc. in 1959 for her work on the taxonomy of '' Poa''. In 1960 she came to wider public attention when she was called on the

New South Wales Police The New South Wales Police Force (NSW Police Force; previously the New South Wales Police Service and New South Wales Police) is the primary law enforcement agency of the state of New South Wales, Australia. Divided into Police Area Commands (P ...

to identify plant fragments in the kidnap and murder of Graeme Thorne in August 1960. At trial in March 1961 Stephen Leslie Bradley was convicted, based largely on her analysis of crime scene plant matter and soil. She was M.B.E. in 1962, and retired her position at the herbarium in 1968. She continued to research actively and was involved in several conservation projects, until she died at her home in

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

from cancer in 1979. The Linnean Society of NSW renamed a grant fund in her honour posthumously in recognition to her annual private contribution to the fund since 1971, a substantial donation to the fund from her estate, and her support for the Society which included council roles since 1969.Linnean Society Research Grants

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vickery, Joyce Winifred 1908 births 1979 deaths Members of the Order of the British Empire Women botanists People educated at MLC School 20th-century Australian botanists 20th-century women scientists Australian women botanists 20th-century Australian women Scientists from Sydney