Eleanor Mary Ord Laurie


Eleanor Mary Ord Laurie Isserlis was a British mammalogist.

Early life

Laurie was born in 1919 to parents Elinor Beatrice Ord and Robert Douglas Laurie. Her father was head of the Zoology Department at Aberystwyth University from 1918 until his retirement in 1940.

Education and career

Laurie was the head of the Mammal Department at the British Museum of Natural History.
She graduated from St Hugh's College, Oxford in 1942 with a Master of Science degree.
In its 1949-1950 issue, the St Hugh's College Chronicle noted that she was appointed Senior Scientific Officer at the British Museum in its Zoology Department.
She became a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London in 1950; she withdrew from the Society in 1958.

Species described

Laurie described a number of new mammal species, including:

Personal life

On 29 December 1949, she married Alexander Reginald Isserlis, who would become Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister in 1970. Together, they had two daughters.

Honors

In 2009, Helgen and Helgen named a new species of mouse after Laurie, Pseudohydromys eleanorae, recommending the common name of Laurie's moss mouse.