Frances Marion Lina Sheffield

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(3 February 1904 – 12 May 1973) was an English

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

Biography

Sheffield was born in

Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

, England. She studied Botany at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

. She specialised in the study of

plant virus Plant viruses are viruses that have the potential to affect plants. Like all other viruses, plant viruses are obligate intracellular parasites that do not have the molecular machinery to replicate without a host. Plant viruses can be pathoge ...

es. During World War II, the

Rothamsted Experimental Station Rothamsted Research, previously known as the Rothamsted Experimental Station and then the Institute of Arable Crops Research, is one of the oldest agricultural research institutions in the world, having been founded in 1843. It is located at Harp ...

was allocated an

electron microscope An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of electrons as a source of illumination. It uses electron optics that are analogous to the glass lenses of an optical light microscope to control the electron beam, for instance focusing it ...

for the prime purpose of studying plant viruses, and Sheffield and E. M. Crook were largely responsible for its initial assembly. She was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE) in the

1972 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1972 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced in supplements to the '' L ...

, when she was described as "lately Principal Scientific Officer, Plant Quarantine Station, East African Agriculture and Forestry Research Organisation, Maguga, Kenya". She died in

Likoni Likoni is a division of Mombasa County, Kenya, and is located to the south-west of Mombasa Island. Transport Likoni is the site of the southern terminus of the Likoni Ferry, a double ended ferry serving road traffic and pedestrians from bo ...

, Mombasa, Kenya in 1973.''England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966, 1973-1995''

Selected publications

*Sheffield, F. M. L. (1936)
The susceptibility of the plant cell to virus disease
''Annals of Applied Biology'', 23: pp498–505. doi:10.1111/j.1744-7348.1936.tb06106.x *Sheffield, F. M. L. (1955)
Plant Quarantine in East Africa
''The East African Agricultural Journal'' 21 (1) pp10–17

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheffield, Frances Marion 1904 births 1973 deaths Alumni of King's College London Officers of the Order of the British Empire Electron microscopy English botanists British phytopathologists Women phytopathologists Rothamsted Experimental Station people People from Hastings 20th-century British agronomists