2019 marks 100 years since women were able to be elected as Fellows of the Geological Society, with the first eight elected in May 1919. They came from a diverse range of specialisms, backgrounds and experience – as part of our activities to mark the anniversary, we’re profiling each of them.

We know more about some than others – if you have any information you’d like to share with us about our early female Fellows, please get in touch! 

Mildred Blanche Robinson

In our series profiling the first eight women to become Fellows of the Geological Society, we’ve met palaeontologists, stratigraphers, field geologists, university lecturers, archivists and photographers – but our eighth subject is something of a mystery.

The Society’s Proceedings for May 1919 simply state ‘Mildred Blanche Robinson, B.Sc., 5 Gledhow
Gardens, S.W. 5’. We haven’t been able to uncover any further information about her, other than the fact that she was single at the time of her election, and that she left a bequest to the Society which was used in 1968 for a refurbishment project at Burlington House.

The lack of information about Robinson highlights how unknown so many early female geologists are. We’re indebted to the authors of the papers and books we’ve referenced in this series, and to the Geological Society’s archivist, Caroline Lam, for her help in researching the history of women and the Geological Society. If you have any information about Mildred Robinson – or any of our early female Fellows – please get in touch! You can write to us at outreach@geolsoc.org.uk, or drop us a line in the comments.

Oral History Project

Finally, the Society is embarking on a project this year to record the memories and experiences of some of our longstanding female Fellows. If you’d like to contribute, or have any suggestions for people we can contact, please let us know! You can find out more at www.geolsoc.org.uk/100years.