‘I must say, I find everything interesting’
By the age of four, Miriam Rothschild – Charles’ eldest daughter – was collecting ladybirds and caterpillars, and instead of a teddy she had a tame quail. Rather than formal education, she was encouraged to pursue anything of interest – molluscs, parasites, butterflies, flowers, animal rights, to name only a few. Miriam spent 30 years cataloguing her father’s flea collection, and she worked out the mechanics of their improbable jumps, as well as the life-cycle of the myxomatosis flea, and how butterflies store toxins from plants to repel predators.
She published 369 scientific papers, 11 books, and received honorary doctorates from eight universities, while also codebreaking at Bletchley Park with Alan Turing, pushing the UK government to accept more Jewish refugees – housing 49 children herself at Ashton Wold, as well as injured soldiers including Captain George Lane, who she married and had six children with. Miriam also continued her father’s work with The Wildlife Trusts, including a review (with naturalist Peter Marren) of the sites on the Rothschild List 80 years after it was published. In 2000 Miriam was made a Dame of the British Empire. She died in 2005, aged 96, at her beloved Ashton Wold.