BSc Honours at Aberystwyth
1 October 1948
1 October 1948 to July 1949
Unfortunately we have very few details of this time in Mary’s life. We have pieced together some snippets from her academic files, from her research files for her later publications about the flora and fauna of various Welsh Islands, and from information contained in those publications.
December 1948
Exams
Easter 1949
Exams
June 1949
Exams in Practical Botany, etc.
Mary spent at least part of her summer holidays on some of the Welsh islands off the coast of Pembrokeshire as we know that research conducted on 25 June 1949 contributed to her journal article ‘An ecological account of the vegetation of Grassholm Island, Pembrokeshire’ published in the Journal of Ecology, vol. 41, 1953.
Friday 22 July 1949
Before a Congregation of the University, in the King’s Hall, Aberystwyth, Mary was one of only seven students of the University College of Wales to graduate BSc with First Class Honours in Botany.
An undated newspaper cutting Mary retained reports:
Miss Mary E. Gillham, of 209 Gunnersbury Park, Ealing, a former student of Ealing County School for Girls, where she matriculated, is the only student this year to obtain an Honours Degree (first-class) in Botany at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. She has been studying there for four years following a period of 4½ years in the Women’s Land Army, and obtained the BSc degree in Agriculture twelve months ago.
Miss Gillham has also been invited to read a paper at the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science to be held at Newcastle-on-Tyne in September, the chosen subject being ‘Plant Life on Skokholm Island Pembrokeshire.’
