Joan Beauchamp Procter

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joan Beauchamp Procter

Joan Beauchamp Procter (born August 5, 1897 in London , † September 20, 1931 in Regent's Park , London) was a British herpetologist who made a name for herself above all for taming large reptiles.

Live and act

Joan Procter was born in London as the youngest daughter of the stockbroker Joseph Procter and the artist Elizabeth Brockbank. Her sister Chrystabel later became a recognized horticultural artist. Due to her unstable health, Procter often had to interrupt her school days at St Paul's Girls' School. She was also unable to study zoology at Cambridge because of her illnesses. In 1917 she became an assistant to George Albert Boulenger in the Department of Fish and Reptiles at the Natural History Museum in London. In August 1917 she was elected a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London . After George Albert Boulenger retired in 1920, she took over the herpetological department of the Natural History Museum as curator. She was succeeded by Hampton Wildman Parker in 1923 after Procter accepted Edward George Boulenger's offer to work in the newly built aquarium at London Zoo . Here she designed landscapes and showcases. Edward Boulenger was so enthusiastic about her work that he appointed her as curator for reptiles. In the following period, the design and construction of a new reptile house, a new main gate and a baboon house in the London Zoo fell into her area of ​​responsibility. She was also a long-time employee at Whipsnade Zoo . Procter caused a sensation by taming reptiles, including an anaconda and two Komodo dragons . She died of cancer in 1931 at the age of only 34.

literature

  • Kraig Adler: Contributions to the History of Herpetology. Volume 2. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, 2007, ISBN 9780916984717 .
  • Renate Strohmeier: Lexicon of the natural scientists and women of Europe: from antiquity to the 20th century . Harri Deutsch Verlag, 1998. ISBN 9783817115679

Web links