The previous post contained excerpts from the notebooks of Leonora Rintoul, kept during the first half of the last century. Her lifelong friend and fellow ornithologist, Evelyn Baxter, kept similar notebooks over the same timeframe. Although the vast majority of the notes related to bird life and weather conditions, there were a few references to the locality (both ladies lived in Upper Largo). Here are a couple of examples...
26 Feb 1933
Very cold. A huge sea; at nearly high water it was dashing right up to the top of the Crusoe Hotel. It threw up logs of wood, sea-weed, etc into Lower Largo street.
21.7.1953
For the first time in ages a bird had pecked a hole in my milk bottle top.
Miss Baxter outlived her friend, Miss Rintoul, by six years and must have felt the loss of such a kindred spirit deeply. The pair had revolutionised bird migration theory by relating it to weather conditions and had produced the classic book "The Birds of Scotland" together. After Miss Rintoul's death in May 1953, Miss Baxter wrote a letter in the August to a mutual friend where she stated "Miss Rintoul's death has made us all very sad. We shall miss her terribly in many ways". She goes on to explain that Miss Rintoul's home, Balsusney, had been let and that "I have been so busy helping to clean it up in addition to other things that I've had little time for birding".
26 Feb 1933
Very cold. A huge sea; at nearly high water it was dashing right up to the top of the Crusoe Hotel. It threw up logs of wood, sea-weed, etc into Lower Largo street.
21.7.1953
For the first time in ages a bird had pecked a hole in my milk bottle top.
Miss Baxter outlived her friend, Miss Rintoul, by six years and must have felt the loss of such a kindred spirit deeply. The pair had revolutionised bird migration theory by relating it to weather conditions and had produced the classic book "The Birds of Scotland" together. After Miss Rintoul's death in May 1953, Miss Baxter wrote a letter in the August to a mutual friend where she stated "Miss Rintoul's death has made us all very sad. We shall miss her terribly in many ways". She goes on to explain that Miss Rintoul's home, Balsusney, had been let and that "I have been so busy helping to clean it up in addition to other things that I've had little time for birding".
However, Evelyn did return to birding in time. In 1955, Miss Baxter received an honorary degree from the University of Glasgow (see image).
In 1957 she attended the 'coming of age' dinner of the Scottish Ornithologists' Club (SOC), which had originated in 1936. There she was presented with a clock to mark the occasion (see image at foot of post) by Sir Arthur Duncan (chairman of the Nature Conservancy Council). Duncan was the first chair of the SOC and Misses Baxter and Rintoul were the first (joint) presidents.
Evelyn Baxter passed away on 1 October 1959 but both she and Miss Rintoul are still spoken of fondly at the SOC Headquarters.
With thanks to the Scottish Ornithologists' Club for both the information and images.
In 1957 she attended the 'coming of age' dinner of the Scottish Ornithologists' Club (SOC), which had originated in 1936. There she was presented with a clock to mark the occasion (see image at foot of post) by Sir Arthur Duncan (chairman of the Nature Conservancy Council). Duncan was the first chair of the SOC and Misses Baxter and Rintoul were the first (joint) presidents.
Evelyn Baxter passed away on 1 October 1959 but both she and Miss Rintoul are still spoken of fondly at the SOC Headquarters.
With thanks to the Scottish Ornithologists' Club for both the information and images.
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