Isabella Gordon

Podcast

This podcast was released on 18^th May 2021, 60 years after the 60th birthday of Dr Isabella Gordon. It considers the occasion of her visit to Japan, also 60 years ago, to take a central role in the celebrations of the 60th birthday of Emperor Hirohito, another marine biologist. The speakers are Catherine Booth – Science Historian and retired Science Curator, National Library of Scotland – and Miranda Lowe, who, as Principal Curator (Crustacea) and museum scientist at the Natural History Museum, is Isabella’s successor. Their conversation is interwoven with music by Frances M Lynch.

Artistic Connections

She sketched and illustrated specimens to accompany her notes and papers. Her watercolour illustrations, some done at Millport, Isle of Cumbrae, Scotland, and held in the Archives at the Natural History Museum, are especially attractive.

Isabella took pains to reproduce every detail as accurately as she could.  She may have learned this skill in her Nature Study classes at school, which included practice in drawing from nature.

A children’s illustrator, Alexa Rutherford, drew 6 beautiful illustrations from Isabella’s life for a new booklet for children by Catherine Booth and Miranda Lowe CBE, published by Electric Voice Theatre on May 18th 2026. The drawings include images of species Isabella studied and are just as carefully drawn. You’ll find some of them here.

Music

Title: The Grand Old Lady of Carcinology
Composer: FRANCES M LYNCH
Words by: Frances M Lynch, Dr A.J. Bateman, Dr Isabella Gordon
Written: May 15^th 2021
For: A capella vocal quartet (any voices)
Performed by: Frances M Lynch and Herbie Clarke
First Performance:  Stroud Green Festival, London, August 2021 by Frances M Lynch, Soprano, Jenny Miller, Alto, Laurence Panter, Tenor and Gwion Thomas, Baritone, from Electric Voice Theatre.

Dr Isabella Gordon may not have received as much recognition in her own country as she deserved, despite becoming internationally respected as a specialist in her field, but her colleagues were inspired to name her The Grand Old Lady of Carcinology.

This honorary title has been expanded into a 2 verse limerick by the composer, which summarizes her career and visit to Japan. These were created to echo the style of the following 2 original limerick verses which demonstrate good humoured correspondence between professional colleagues.

The first is by Dr A.J. Bateman, it’s his response to the title of a review Gordon published in 1958 of Siewing’s ‘Anatomie und Histologie von Thermosbaena mirabilis’. She chose to give the words the meter of a limerick, ‘A thermophilous shrimp from Tunisia’ which he felt free to augment! Her own witty riposte to his verse forms the final stanza – in which his attempt to rhyme Tunisia with it is e’er is criticized for being impossible when, like Gordon, you have a strong Scottish accent!

The full text is available to download here as a pdf.

Title:  The Sea Shell
Composer: ISOBEL DUNLOP
Words in Scots by: William Soutar
Written in: 1944
For: Voice and Piano
Performed by: Frances M Lynch (voice), Laurence Panter (piano)
Recorded: February 2026, Warwick

This beautiful song was written in Scots, the language Isabella grew up speaking in its Doric dialect. Written during WW2 it both evokes the wonder of what is to be found in the ocean but also the horror of finding the bodies of dead sailors washed up on the beach.

Title: Lobsters and Limericks
Composer: FRANCES M LYNCH
Words by: Frances M Lynch, Catherine Booth, Dr Isabella Gordon
Written: November 2021
For: Mixed voices and instruments
Performed by: Voices of the Future Virtual Choir
First Performance: 18th November 2021, ZOOM performance as part of “Isabella’s Footsteps”, an electric voice theatre event for the series “Marine Biology Live” by the Marine Biological Association.

Isabella really liked Limericks so why not convert some of her published papers into some lyrical limericks and make a song out of them! 

“The puerulus shedding of shells
Causes hunger to rise in their cells
It’s molting for lobsters
But their boney deposits
Are happening less often because……..

……of acidification in the ocean ……caused by ourselves!!!!“

Attended Keith Grammar School; Obtained BSc from Aberdeen University; Gained PhD from Imperial College, University of London in 1926; Awarded DSc from University of Aberdeen in 1928.

Isabella Gordon’s parents had very little money, and it was only because she was awarded first a bursary, then scholarships, that she was able to continue studying after the age of 14.

Occupations

Scholarship student
After graduating with a BSc from Aberdeen University, Isabella was awarded a scholarship for two years to study ‘soft corals’, specimens of which others had brought back from exotic locations such as the Caribbean.  Her first published scientific papers documented this research. 

Postgraduate research student 

Having been accepted as a PhD student at Imperial college, London, Isabella embarked on the study of echinoderms, sea creatures with five part symmetry round a central point, which include spiny sea urchins and sand dollars.  This work earned her a Doctorate from Imperial College, and was the topic of further published scientific papers.

Research Fellow 
Out of 178 applicants in 1926, Isabella was one of only 20 successful candidates to be awarded a Commonwealth Fund Fellowship to study at universities in the USA.  Over two years, in California, Massachusetts and elsewhere, she continued her study of echinoderms. 

Assistant Keeper, then Principal Scientific Officer and Carcinologist, in charge of Crustacea Collections, British Museum (Natural History)
The word Crustacea covers all kinds of creatures like crabs, lobsters and shrimps which have hard shells and several pairs of legs, and usually live in water. Carcinology is the study of crustaceans. From 1929-1966, Dr Gordon was the crustacea specialist in what we now call the Natural History Museum in London. Over her lifetime, she became one of the top experts throughout the world in this field. 

Editor of specialist journal
From its beginnings in 1960 until she had to resign owing to ill health, Isabella Gordon edited the peer reviewed international journal, Crustaceana, which publishes research papers on all aspects of crustacea. 

Scientific Achievements

Before Isabella took up a position at the British Museum (Natural History) her studies had been recognised by other scientists.  Her work on sea urchins, for example, was said to have added so much to existing knowledge that it was included in a book called Biology for Everyman written by Sir J. Arthur Thomson.

The Natural History Musem has one of the largest collections of crustacea in the world, holding huge numbers of specimens preserved in jars, catalogued and labelled.

When she was in charge, Isabella Gordon knew more about these than anyone else. Even after she officially retired, she continued to research and study these, writing and publishing well over 100 scientific papers on specific creatures, often illustrated with her own sketches. 

Other scientists regularly asked her for help – either to identify a specimen they didn’t recognise, or to give advice and comments on their work. She was known for her very detailed and comprehensive answers, and even allowed others to use her illustrations in their publications. There are many papers written by others which include acknowledgments to her. 

She frequently gave lectures and contributed papers to conferences held in other countries, such as the USA, Mexico, Spain, Portugal and Denmark, and collaborated with marine biologists in several countries. 

The most important overseas project in her life came in 1961, when she was invited to visit Japan for several weeks in April and May, to attend the 60th birthday celebrations of Emperor Hirohito. Before the visit, she arranged for specimens from the British Museum to be sent over to join the Emperor’s own collection in an exhibition. The first venue for this exhibition was in a Tokyo department store! The Emperor himself was a keen marine biologist, and Isabella Gordon spent over 2 hours in discussion with him on that topic, and gave a lecture to a large audience. She was treated as an honoured guest throughout, and taken all over Japan to visit laboratories and scientists, many of whom were people with whom she had corresponded in the past. One day a university team took her with them on a boat which was collecting specimens in Sagami Bay, near Tokyo.

When Emperor Hirohito made a State Visit to London for 3 days in October 1971, Isabella Gordon was one of the scientists chosen to talk to him at the Linnean Society during his visits to various scientific institutions. British Government rules for civil servants meant that she was not permitted to accept the Order of the Rising Sun offered by the Emperor of Japan. 

Did You Know?

Despite her considerable scientific achievements the Royal Society rejected an application by her colleagues to appoint her as a Fellow. 

When Isabella Gordon began her career, it was difficult for single women living alone to find affordable accommodation, especially in London. A scheme called Women’s Pioneer Housing, established in 1920, helped her find a flat near Earl’s Court, very convenient for the Museum. 

Isabella Gordon first met Japanese scientists in the USA in 1926, and kept up correspondence with some of them over the following decades – which included wartime.  At various times, several Japanese visitors called on her at the Natural History Museum, so by the time she was invited to Japan in 1961, she considered she was going to visit friends.

Her visit to Japan was nevertheless a very unusual one, as at that time, memories of wartime were still raw in both countries, trips by ordinary citizens to either nation were uncommon, and this one involved the Emperor himself. Japanese newspapers and television kept up with her itinerary, and she said subsequently in a report of her visit: “Every fisherman in East Japan knew that a ‘lady kani-ebi doctor’ had come to visit their Emperor.”  She much appreciated the friendship and hospitality she received. 

Isabella Gordon was very particular about precision and accuracy when she prepared a paper for publication, and would often require amendments to her proofs. 

An Inspiring Woman

Isabella showed that a difficult early life did not prevent her working hard to achieve her ambition. That makes her an excellent role model for young people today, who may be struggling in adverse circumstances. 

Isabella remained very modest all her life, but was always ready to help anyone who asked for advice, and seemed to enjoy witnessing their achievements 

Having suffered a stroke in later life which paralysed her right side, she taught herself to write using her left hand so that she could continue to correspond with her friends and fellow scientists. 

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