Monica Turner

Monica Turner (1925 – 9 October 2013) was an English ornithologist who was the first woman ornithologist to acquire a doctorate in Britain, in 1952. She published under her maiden name Monica Betts. Her thesis was entitled The Availability of Food and Predation by the Genus Parus and examined bird populations in the woods in Wytham Woods near Oxford and the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, under the guidance of David Lack. Biography Monica Turner was born Monica Betts, in Nuneaton, Warwickshire in 1925. She had a love of birds and the countryside from a young age. She studied zoology at the University College London before joining the Edward Grey Institute, where she researched under David Lack. She was initially a field assistant for Peter Hartley and then obtained a grant from the Agriculture Research Council for her own research. After her doctorate, she worked on a project funded by the Nature Conservancy with John Gibb. Monica married Geoffrey Turner in 1957 and lived in Cumnor, near Oxford. Geoffrey died in 1984. They have two children, Jonathan and Jessica, and also two grandchildren.