Sibille Ford

Sibille Ormston Ford (1874 – 1932) was an English botanist and zoologist.  

She was born in Leeds, the daughter of a silk mill manager, in 1874. She was the niece of reformer Isabella Ormston Ford.[1]

Ford gained a first class pass in botany and zoology at Newnham College, Cambridge in 1899. She received a Bathurst studentship to continue her studies in 1900–2, and taught as an assistant in animal morphology at the Balfour Biological Laboratory for Women in 1901–2.[1][2] She received a BA from Trinity College, Dublin in 1906[1] (where Cambridge alumni would travel to receive their degrees while Cambridge was not awarding them to women).

She published several solo and joint papers on plant anatomy, including a review of the Araucariaceae with Albert Seward which was published by the Royal Society in 1906.[3]  

Ford was a Quaker, and assisted with the Friends Relief Mission in Bar-le-Duc, Verdun in 1918–20.[1]

She died in Grange-Over-Sands, Cumbria in 1932.[1]

Select works

• 'The anatomy of Ceratopteris Thalictroides' (1902)[5]
• (with Alfred Seward) 'The Anatomy of Todea, with notes on the geological history and affinities of the Osmundaceae' (1903)[6]
• 'The Anatomy of Psilotum triquetrum' (1904)[7]
• (with Alfred Seward) 'The Araucarieae, recent and extinct' (1906)[8]

References

1. "Sibille Ford". www.newbotaniststwo.uk. Retrieved 2024-09-06.
2. Richmond, Marsha L. (1997). ""A Lab of One's Own": The Balfour Biological Laboratory for Women at Cambridge University, 1884-1914". Isis. 88 (3): 422–455. doi:10.1086/383769. ISSN 0021-1753. JSTOR 236151. PMID 9450359.
3. Jones, C. (2009-10-15). Femininity, Mathematics and Science, 1880–1914. Springer. p. 179. ISBN 978-0-230-24665-2.
4. International Plant Names Index.  S.O.Ford.
5. Ford, Sibille O. (1902). "The Anatomy of Ceratopteris thalictroides, (L.)". Annals of Botany. os-16 (1): 95–122. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.aob.a088872. ISSN 1095-8290.
6. Seward, A. C.; Ford, Sibille O. (1903). "V. The Anatomy of Todea, with Notes on the Geological History and Affinities of the Osmundaceae". Transactions of the Linnean Society of London. 2nd Series: Botany. 6 (5): 237–260. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.1903.tb00008.x.
7. Ford, Sibille O. (1904). "The Anatomy of Psilotum triquetrum". Annals of Botany. os-18 (4): 589–605. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.aob.a088978. ISSN 1095-8290.
8. "The araucarieæ, recent and extinct". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing Papers of a Biological Character. 77 (515): 163–164. 1906-01-06. doi:10.1098/rspb.1906.0007. ISSN 0950-1193.