Biographical entry Vickery, Joyce Winifred (1908 - 1979)

Summary

Joyce Winifred Vickery was a forensic botanist who was most noted for her work on the kidnap and murder case of Graham Thorne in 1960. The successful conviction of the culprit was based largely on her analysis of crime scene plant matter and soil. Vickery was the first female researcher appointed to the New South Wales Herbarium and many of her taxonomic correspondences between 1935 and 1972 are housed at the Royal Botanic Gardens, New South Wales.

Details

Events

1931

Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc) completed at the University of Sydney

1931 - 1936

Career position - Science research scholarship at the University of Sydney

1933

Education - Master of Science (MSc) completed at the University of Sydney

1934

Career position - President of the University of Sydney Biology Society

1936 - 1964

Career position - Assistant Botanist at the National Herbarium of New South Wales

1937 - 1938

Career position - Spent a year at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London

1959

Education - Doctor of Science (DSc) received from the University of Sydney

1962

Award - Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE)

1964

Award - Clarke Medal received from the Royal Society of New South Wales

1964 - 1968

Career position - Senior Botanist at the National Herbarium of New South Wales

1968

Life event - Retired

1971 - 1978

Life event - Honorary Treasurer of the Linnean Society of New South Wales

1973 - 1979

Life event - Honorary Research Fellow at the National Herbarium of New South Wales

Published resources

Book Sections

• Holland, Alison, 'Joyce Vickery (1908-1979) botanist', in Heather Radi (ed.), 200 Australian Women: A Redress Anthology, Women's Redress Press Inc, Sydney, 1988. Details
• Hooker, Claire, 'Vickery, Joyce Winifred (1908-1979), Botanist and Conservationist', in John Ritchie and Diane Langmore (eds), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 16, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2002, pp. 452-453. Also available at http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A160544b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Hooker, Claire, 'Joyce Winifrid Vickery: Taxonomic Botanist', Australasian Science, vol. 21, no. 7, 2000, p. 46. Details
• Vickery, Joyce W., 'Obituary: Robert Henry Anderson (1899-1969) [includes list of publications]', Contributions. New South Wales. National Herbarium, vol. 4, no. 5, 1972, pp. 245-249. Details

Online Resources

• National Library of Australia, 'Vickery, Joyce Winifred', Trove, National Library of Australia and the Australian National Maritime Museum Darling Harbour, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-744072. Details