Margaret Dampier Anderson (née Whetham; 1900–1997) was a British biochemist and scientific indexer. She published four scientific articles in the 1920s before marrying in 1927 and began indexing books beginning in 1960.

Life

Margaret Whetham was born on 21 April 1900, the daughter of

William Cecil Dampier Whetham Sir William Cecil Dampier FRS (born William Cecil Dampier Whetham) (27 December 1867 – 11 December 1952) was a British scientist, agriculturist, and science historian who developed a method of extracting lactose (milk sugar) from whey. ...

, a Cambridge-educated scientist and agricultural academic, and his wife Catherine Durning Holt, a daughter of Liverpool merchant Robert Durning Holt who had also pursued an education at Cambridge. One of her many great aunts (the “Potter sisters”) was social reformer

Beatrice Webb Martha Beatrice Webb, Baroness Passfield, (née Potter; 22 January 1858 – 30 April 1943) was an English sociologist, economist, socialist, labour historian and social reformer. It was Webb who coined the term ''collective bargaining''. She ...

. She had one brother and four sisters, including Edith Holt Whetham. Her family owned a small

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, and also inherited a small estate in Hilfield, Dorset where they spent family vacations. Margaret Whetham attended University College, Exeter and then earned her M.A. from

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sid ...

in 1926. While in graduate school, she worked with Marjory Stephenson including work on the washed suspension technique, which had originated with

Louis Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization, the latter of which was named afte ...

, for extracting

enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products. A ...

s from bacteria. Whetham co-authored four scientific papers with Stephenson and held the Old Students Jubilee Research Fellowship in 1926–27. She married Dr. Alan Bruce Anderson, a clinical

pathologist Pathology is the study of the causal, causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when us ...

, on 12 September 1927,Haines, p. 7 and had five children and sixteen grandchildren including

Tiffany Margaret Hall Tiffany Margaret Hall (born 24 April 1963) is a British engineer who has had a career in broadcast engineering and information technology. Early life The granddaughter of Margaret Anderson (indexer), Hall attended Walthamstow Hall and Durham ...

Work

She abstracted scientific articles for several years before beginning to work as a freelance scientific indexer in 1960, creating indexes for 567 books over her career. Anderson joined the

Society of Indexers The Society of Indexers (SI) is a professional society of indexers based in the UK, with its offices in Sheffield, England, but has members worldwide. The society was established in 1957, while its quarterly journal, ''The Indexer'' has been publ ...

two years later and served as its treasurer, membership secretary, member of the board of assessors, and vice-president over the next several decades. She was awarded the Wheatley Medal by the Society in 1975 for her index to ''Copy-editing: The Cambridge Handbook''. Eight years later, the Society presented her with its Carey Award for "outstanding services to indexing".

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Margaret 1900 births 1997 deaths Women biochemists 20th-century women scientists Alumni of the University of Exeter Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge