Rosalind Pitt-Rivers

Rosalind Venetia Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers FRS ( Henley; 4 March 1907 – 14 January 1990) was a British biochemist. She became the second president of the European Thyroid Association in 1971; she succeeded Jean Roche and was followed by Jack Gross in this position, all three names inextricably linked with the discovery of the thyroid hormone triiodothyronine (T3). Early life and education Pitt-Rivers was born Rosalind Venetia Henley on 4 March 1907 at 18 Mansfield Street, London, the eldest of four daughters of the Hon. Anthony Morton Henley (1873–1925), a Captain in the 5th Lancers, and his wife the Hon. Sylvia Laura Stanley (1882–1980). Her father was the third son of Anthony Henley, 3rd Baron Henley and her mother the daughter of Lord Stanley of Alderley. She was educated at home and later at Notting Hill High School at the age of thirteen. Her interest in chemistry began at the age of twelve when an uncle gave her a chemistry set. She later studied at Bedford College (University of London), where she was awarded a Bachelor of Science in 1930 with first class honours, and an MSc in 1931. Personal life In 1931, she married, as his second wife, George Pitt-Rivers (1890–1966), anthropologist and eugenist, one of the richest men in England, and a grandson of Augustus Pitt Rivers (1827–1900), who founded the anthropology museum named after him in Oxford. She became stepmother to the two boys from his first marriage, Michael and Julian. She gave birth to a son, Anthony Pitt-Rivers, in 1932, but the marriage was dissolved in 1937.