Agnes Arber - Biography

Biography

Agnes Arber was born on 23 February 1879 in London. She was the first child of Henry Robertson, an artist and Agnes Lucy Turner and had two younger siblings, Donald Straun Robertson (who later became Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge) and Janet Robertson who later became a portrait painter. Her father gave her regular drawing lessons during her early childhood, which later provided her with the necessary skills to illustrate her scientific publications herself.

At the age of eight Arber began attending the North London Collegiate School founded and run by Frances Buss, one of the leading proponents for girls' education. Under the direction of the school's science teacher Miss Edith Aitken Arber discovered a fascination with botany, publishing her first piece of research in 1894 in the school's magazine and later coming first in the school's botany examinations, winning a scholarship. It was here that Arber first met Ethel Sargent, a plant morphologist who gave regular presentations to the school science club. Sargent would later become her mentor and colleague, having a profound influence on Arber's research interests and methods.

In 1897 Arber began studying at University College, London, gaining her B.Sc. in 1899. After gaining an entrance scholarship Arber became a member of Newnham College, Cambridge and took a further degree in Natural Sciences. She gained first class results in every examination at both universities, along with several prizes and medals from University College, London. After finishing her Cambridge degree in 1902 Arber worked in the private laboratory of Ethel Sargent for a year, before returning to University College, London as holder of the Quain Studentship in Biology. She was awarded a Doctorate of Science in 1905.

Agnes Arber married paleobotanist Edward Alexander Newall Arber (1870–1918), in 1909 and moved back to Cambridge, where she would remain for the rest of her life. Her only child Muriel Agnes Arber was born in 1913. Arber and her husband had many interests in common, and her marriage was described as 'happy'. Arber was awarded a Research Fellowship from Newnham College in 1912 and published her first book Herbals, their origin and evolution in the same year. Her husband Newall Arber died in 1918 following a period of ill health. Arber never re-married, but continued with her research. She studied in the Balfour Laboratory for Women from her marriage until the laboratory's closure in 1927. Arber maintained a small laboratory in a back room of her house from then until she stopped performing bench research in the 1940s and turned to philosophical study.

Agnes Arber died on 22 March 1960 at the age of 81.