Edith Berkeley (1 September 1875–25 February 1963) was a Canadian marine biologist who specialized in the biology of polychaetes. The Edith Berkeley Memorial Lectures were established in the University of British Columbia in her memory in 1969.[1]
Edith was born in Tulbagh, Cape Colony to bridge engineer Alfred Dunington and his wife Martha Treglohan. Edith studied at Wimbledon High School in London, UK and completed a pre-medical course at the University of London while attending on scholarship.[2]
After earning her bachelor of medicine degree in 1897, Edith took an interest in chemistry and zoology. She worked for a Professor Weldon as well as Morris Travers in the William Ramsay Laboratory.[1]
In 1918, she gave up a paid position as zoology assistant at Columbia University to work as a volunteer for the Pacific Biological Station at Nanaimo in British Columbia Canada.[3] Though she was never officially on staff, her research on polychaetes brought prestige to the Station and established her as a world authority on the subject.[4]
Edith met her husband, Cyril J. Bergtheil, in the chemistry lab of Morris Travers. Bergtheil changed his name to Cyril J. Berkeley, then was hired as an imperial bacteriologist in India in 1902. Edith and Cyril married on February 26, 1902 and moved to India where they lived for ten years.[1][5]
Cyril left his own research to help Edith study polychaete taxonomy by 1930. The pair wrote 34 papers together, and Edith published an additional 12 in her own name. Many organisms—including two rhododendron hybrids, two polychaetes (Lepidasthenia berkeleyae and Spiophanes berkeleyorum), and a species of earthworm—have been named after them.[1] Their daughter Alfreda Berkeley Needler (1903–1951) also became a zoologist, as did Alfreda's daughter Mary Needler Arai (1932–2017). Edith died in Nanaimo, British Columbia on February 25, 1963.
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