Kathleen Laura Prendergast M.R.C.S. (19 November 1910 – 1 June 1954) was an Australian

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

, who later retrained as a doctor and was commissioned into the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...

. She was appointed as Regimental Medical Officer to the 1st Battalion, The Black Watch. She was the first, and at the time of her death, the only female to hold this role in the British Army.

Education

Kathleen Prendergast was born in

Carlton, Victoria Carlton is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 3 km north of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne Local government areas of Vic ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

the eldest of two daughters. The family moved to

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

where Prendergast studied geology at the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

graduating with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in 1933 and then a Diploma of Education in 1934. She was awarded a Hackett Research Studentship to study 'The Permo-Carboniferous fauna of W.A.' in 1935 and after a year she left the University of Western Australia to work with A.G. Brighton at the

Sedgwick Museum The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, is the geology museum of the University of Cambridge. It is part of the Department of Earth Sciences and is located on the university's Downing Site in Downing Street, central Cambridge, England. The Sedgw ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

. She was awarded an

1851 Research Fellowship The 1851 Research Fellowship is a scheme conducted by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 to annually award a three-year research scholarship to approximately eight "young scientists or engineers of exceptional promise". The fellowship ...

and was awarded a PhD in 1939. She then changed direction and went on to study medicine at

King's College Hospital King's College Hospital is a major teaching hospital and major trauma centre in Denmark Hill, Camberwell in the London Borough of Lambeth, referred to locally and by staff simply as "King's" or abbreviated internally to "KCH". It is managed by K ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and qualified in medicine in 1944.

Paleontology

In 1935 Prendergast published work from her honours describing and illustrating 12 fossil genera, one of which was new as well as 10 species of which 4 were new. A longer paper in 1943 covered 27 species of which 7 were new. Some time after 1939, Prendergast apparently gave up her paleontological studies once she became a medical doctor.

Publications

* Prendergast, KL 1935. Some Western Australian Upper Palaeozoic fossils: Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, v. 21, p. 9–35. * Prendergast, KL 1936. Notes on the types of Spirifer rostalinus Hosking: Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, v. 22, p. 129. * Prendergast, KL 1943. Permian Productinae and Strophalosiinae of Western Australia: Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, v. 28, p. 1–73. * Clarke, E de C, Prendergast, KL, Teichert, C and Fairbridge, RW 1951. Permian succession and structure in the northern part of the Perth Basin, Western Australia: Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, v. 35, p. 31–84

Medical service

Prendergast undertook her medical training 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 ...

and upon completion was appointed to the Royal Army Medical Corps and went to Germany in 1945. In 1946 she was assigned as Resident Medical Officer (RMO) to the Black Watch Regiment, this time with the rank of Major. This was the first ever RMO appointment to the British Army made to a female. Prendergast died at on 1 June 1954 from sarcoma of the lung aged 44, she is buried at the hospital cemetery. At her funeral the song 'Australian Ladies' was played as her coffin was carried by members of the Black Watch regiment.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prendergast, Kathleen Laura 20th-century Australian geologists Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Australian women geologists 1910 births 1954 deaths University of Western Australia alumni Australian paleontologists Royal Army Medical Corps officers