ROTHSCHILD, Miriam (Louisa) 1908-2005

OBITUARY NOTICE— See index for CA sketch: Born August 5, 1908, in Ashton Wold, Northamptonshire, England; died January 20, 2005, in Ashton Wold, Northamptonshire, England. Naturalist, activist, and author. Despite little formal education, Rothschild became a renowned researcher who was particularly noted for her discoveries in the area of entomology. Born to the wealthy and renowned Rothschild family of bankers, she did not go to school until she was seventeen years old. Nevertheless, she was surrounded by an intellectually stimulating environment, and her father and uncle's passion for biology was passed down to her. A setback came when her father, whose research into flea species she would later take up, committed suicide when she was fifteen. She lost interest in the natural world for the next two years, but regained it after helping her brother with a frog dissection. She then attended the University of London for a time, before setting out, sans degree, to study mollusks. While conducting this research, she discovered a new species of fluke—a parasitic flatworm—which launched her into a spree of flatworm research. Another setback came during World War II, when German bombs wiped out seven years' worth of work. Putting zoology aside to help with the war effort, she was assigned to working on Enigma project, which was dedicated to breaking German communication codes. Earning a living by running her Northamptonshire farm after World War II, she conducted research on fleas, and was the first to describe how these parasites are able to jump so incredibly high. From 1953 until 1987, she also catalogued her father's collection of some thirty thousand fleas, including about five hundred new species. Besides fleas, Rothschild was also an expert on butterflies, and was the first to explain how some species select certain plants to eat in order to make themselves toxic to predators, how they use color to defend against predators, and how some non-toxic species try to mimic their counterparts' use of colors and odors as a defense mechanism. This research went a long way toward supporting Charles Darwin's theories of evolution. Rothschild was also an avid gardener who used her knowledge of both plants and animals to study the then-burgeoning discipline of ecology. Understanding the ways that animals and plants work together to sustain a healthy natural environment, she successfully urged the British government to preserve natural meadowlands instead of planting them with rye grass. In addition to all this, Rothschild was also a champion of several other social and conservation causes, such as gay rights, animal rights, and programs that provided milk to poor children and assisted Jewish refugees who had fled Europe. She herself supported almost fifty Jewish children in her home during the war. She also established the Schizophrenia Research Fund in honor of her sister, who had been plagued by that disease. By the late 1960s, Rothschild had become more concerned with conservation than research, focusing on animal husbandry and on her goal of spreading wild flowers in the countryside, where they had disappeared due to development. Honored repeatedly for her accomplishments in science and social causes, Rothschild was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, received numerous honorary doctorates, was appointed a commander of the Order of the British Empire, was made a dame of the Order in 2000, and the following year earned the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Butterfly Conservation organization. Among her publications are Fleas, Flukes, and Cuckoos (1952), The Butterfly Gardener (1983), Dear Lord Rothschild: Birds, Butterflies, and History (1983), and The Rothschild Gardens (1996).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Independent (London, England), January 22, 2005, p. 50.

New York Times, January 25, 2005, p. C17.

Times (London, England), January 22, 2005, p. 83.

Washington Post, January 31, 2005, p. B7.