29th Generation

196. Frances Mary WRANGHAM¹¹ was born on 29 Apr 1926. . On her death, the Daily Telegraph published the following obituary: 'Frances Murphy, the arachnologist who has died aged 69, was -with her pet tarantula, Patricia- a frequent guest on television and radio programmes. A specialist in spider-rearing, in 1980 Murphy produced the useful guide Keeping Spiders, Insects and Other Land Invertebrates in Captivity, which gave advice to those wishing to keep such creatures in the home rather than the laboratory. She was also an adept photographer, and many of her spider photographs have appeared in natural history journals. She was educated at St James's, West Malvern, and Bedford College, London University, where she read mathematics. She then took a job as a systems analyst, working on wire-guided missiles. But she was more passionate about her spare time activities, and in the early 1960s her interest in bird life shifted to spiders and other arachnids. In her efforts to encourage others to take an interest in spiders, she conducted many weekend spider courses in the Field Studies Council's centres. She held the distinction of being the first woman president of the British Entomological and Natural History Society, despite the fact that she was not an entomologist. The Joint Committee for the Conservation of British Invertebrates also benefited from her intelligence and humour. She was a founder member of both the British and the American Arachnological Societies, as well as of the Friends of the Natural History Museum. She was especially concerned that the museum should maintain its collections and remain a leading scientific institution. At the time of her death she was preparing a book on the spiders of Malaysia.'

Frances Mary WRANGHAM and John MURPHY were married in 1949.