Vera Fretter

Vera Fretter (5 July 1905 – 15 October 1992)[1] was a British conchologist, and one of the authors (with Alastair Graham) of British Prosobranch Molluscs (1962, revised edition 1994).[2]

Fretter was brought up in Plumstead, London, UK. She trained as a teacher at Furzedown Training College, and taught at a primary school in south-east London.[2] While teaching she studied in the evenings at Birkbeck, University of London, obtaining a first class B.Sc. in zoology.[2] She then took up full-time studies and gained her doctorate in 1936. She worked at the University of Reading from 1954 to her retirement in 1970.[2]

Fretter specialised in the study of prosobranch molluscs. She was awarded the 1986 Frink Medal from the Zoological Society of London: "for her contributions to the understanding of the developmental biology, physiological ecology and functional morphology of the prosobranch molluscs".[3][4] British Prosobranch Molluscs was originally published in 1962 by The Ray Society, and republished in a revised and updated edition in 1994.[5]

Fretter was President of the Malacological Society of London for three years from 1966-9.[6][7][8] She joined the Conchological Society of Great Britain & Ireland in 1966, and remained active in research at the University of Reading until her death.[2] In her will, Fretter left £200,000 to the Royal Society for use in marine biological research.[9]

In 2001, Vera Fretter and Ruth Turner were honoured by the symposium 'New Frontiers in Functional Morphology of Molluscs', held at the second World Congress of Malacology in Vienna, Austria, in August of that year.[10]

References
  1. Haines, Catharine M. C. (2001). "Vera Fretter". International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950. ABC-CLIO. p. 103. ISBN 9781576070901.
  2. Chatfield, June. "Vera Fretter, 1905-1992". The Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
  3. "Winners of the ZSL Frink Medal for British Zoologists" (PDF). Zoological Society of London. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  4. "Other notices". The Biologist. Institute of Biology. 34–35. 1987.
  5. "British Prosobranch Molluscs. V. Fretter & A. Graham". The Ray Society. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  6. "Officers and Council for the year 1966-67" (PDF). Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London. Malacological Society of London. 37 (3). December 1966. Retrieved 27 February 2016.
  7. "Officers and Council for the year 1967-68" (PDF). Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London. Malacological Society of London. 37 (4). April 1967. Retrieved 27 February 2016.
  8. "Officers and Council for the year 1968-69" (PDF). Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London. Malacological Society of London. 38 (2). August 1968. Retrieved 27 February 2016.
  9. "Wills". The Independent. London. 6 March 1993. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  10. Baker, Shirley M.; Padilla, Dianna K. (2004). "New frontiers in functional morphology of molluscs: A tribute to Drs. Vera Fretter and Ruth Turner". American Malacological Bulletin. American Malacological Society. 18 (1): 121–127. Retrieved 26 February 2016.

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