Annie Meinertzhagen
Encyclopedia
Annie Meinertzhagen was a British
amateur
ornithologist
whose main contributions to knowledge about birds concerned waders, ducks and bird migration. She married fellow ornithologist Richard Meinertzhagen in whose presence she died in suspicious circumstances.
in the Scottish Highlands
. She developed an early interest in natural history
, especially in bird
s. With her younger sister Dorothy, who was to become an entomologist
, she studied zoology
for three years at the Imperial College of Science
in London
.
However much of her early ornithological work occurred while she was based in Swordale, in Ross and Cromarty
, and along the firth
s of Cromarty
and Dornoch
. She took an interest in bird migration
and corresponded with lighthouse keeper
s who sent her specimens of rarities. She collected the first Scottish autumn specimens
of the Yellow-browed Warbler
and was the first ornithologist to demonstrate that the Iceland
ic race of the Common Redshank
(Tringa totanus robusta) visits Britain.
. She spent part of her honeymoon
in research at Walter Rothschild
’s ornithological museum at Tring
.
In the further course of her ornithological studies she travelled to Copenhagen
in 1921, to Egypt
and Palestine
in 1923, to Madeira
in 1925, and to India
in the winter of 1925–26, when she joined her husband in an expedition to Sikkim
and southern Tibet
hunting birds and mammals in the Himalayas
. She also gave birth to three children, Anne (born 1921), Daniel (born 1925) and Randle (born 1928).
Brian Garfield
comments, in his exposé of Richard Meinertzhagen’s life and character:
s and duck
s. Under her maiden name she authored a series of articles on the moults of British ducks and waders which formed the basis of her contributions on their plumages to Witherby
’s “Practical Handbook of British Birds” (1919–1924). Under her married name she made several important contributions to the Ibis
, including review papers on the genus Burhinus
in 1924, the subfamily Scolopacinae in 1926, and the family Cursoridae
in 1927.
She is also honoured in the subspecific name of the Antipodes Snipe
(Coenocorypha aucklandica meinertzhagenae), described by Walter Rothschild in 1927.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
amateur
Amateur
An amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without pay and often without formal training....
ornithologist
Ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...
whose main contributions to knowledge about birds concerned waders, ducks and bird migration. She married fellow ornithologist Richard Meinertzhagen in whose presence she died in suspicious circumstances.
Early years
Born Anne Constance Jackson, her parents were Major and Mrs Randle Jackson of Swordale, a village in eastern Ross-shireRoss-shire
Ross-shire is an area in the Highland Council Area in Scotland. The name is now used as a geographic or cultural term, equivalent to Ross. Until 1889 the term denoted a county of Scotland, also known as the County of Ross...
in the Scottish Highlands
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
. She developed an early interest in natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
, especially in bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s. With her younger sister Dorothy, who was to become an entomologist
Entomology
Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of arthropodology...
, she studied zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
for three years at the Imperial College of Science
Imperial College London
Imperial College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, specialising in science, engineering, business and medicine...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
However much of her early ornithological work occurred while she was based in Swordale, in Ross and Cromarty
Ross and Cromarty
Ross and Cromarty is a variously defined area in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. There is a registration county and a lieutenancy area in current use...
, and along the firth
Firth
Firth is the word in the Lowland Scots language and in English used to denote various coastal waters in Scotland and England. In mainland Scotland it is used to describe a large sea bay, or even a strait. In the Northern Isles it more usually refers to a smaller inlet...
s of Cromarty
Cromarty Firth
The Cromarty Firth of Cromarty') is an arm of the North Sea in Scotland. It is the middle of the three sea lochs at the head of the Moray Firth: to the north lies the Dornoch Firth, and to the south the Beauly Firth....
and Dornoch
Dornoch Firth
The Dornoch Firth is a firth on the east coast of Highland, in northern Scotland. It forms part of the boundary between Ross and Cromarty, to the south, and Sutherland, to the north....
. She took an interest in bird migration
Bird migration
Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...
and corresponded with lighthouse keeper
Lighthouse keeper
A lighthouse keeper is the person responsible for tending and caring for a lighthouse, particularly the light and lens in the days when oil lamps and clockwork mechanisms were used. Keepers were needed to trim the wicks, replenish fuel, wind clockworks and perform maintenance tasks such as cleaning...
s who sent her specimens of rarities. She collected the first Scottish autumn specimens
Bird collections
Bird collections are curated repositories of scientific specimens consisting of birds and their parts. They are a research resource for ornithology, the science of birds, and for other scientific disciplines in which information about birds is useful...
of the Yellow-browed Warbler
Yellow-browed Warbler
The Yellow-browed Warbler is a leaf warbler which breeds in temperate Asia. This warbler is strongly migratory and winters mainly in tropical southeast Asia, but also in small numbers in western Europe...
and was the first ornithologist to demonstrate that the Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
ic race of the Common Redshank
Common Redshank
The Common Redshank or simply Redshank is an Eurasian wader in the large family Scolopacidae.- Description and systematics :...
(Tringa totanus robusta) visits Britain.
Marriage
In March 1921 she married British soldier, intelligence officer and ornithologist Colonel Richard MeinertzhagenRichard Meinertzhagen
Colonel Richard Henry Meinertzhagen CBE DSO was a British soldier, intelligence officer and ornithologist.- Background and youth :Meinertzhagen was born into a socially connected, wealthy British family...
. She spent part of her honeymoon
Honeymoon
-History:One early reference to a honeymoon is in Deuteronomy 24:5 “When a man is newly wed, he need not go out on a military expedition, nor shall any public duty be imposed on him...
in research at Walter Rothschild
Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild
Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild FRS , a scion of the Rothschild family, was a British banker, politician, and zoologist.-Biography:...
’s ornithological museum at Tring
Tring
Tring is a small market town and also a civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in Hertfordshire, England. Situated north-west of London and linked to London by the old Roman road of Akeman Street, by the modern A41, by the Grand Union Canal and by rail lines to Euston Station, Tring is now largely a...
.
In the further course of her ornithological studies she travelled to Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
in 1921, to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
in 1923, to Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
in 1925, and to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
in the winter of 1925–26, when she joined her husband in an expedition to Sikkim
Sikkim
Sikkim is a landlocked Indian state nestled in the Himalayan mountains...
and southern Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
hunting birds and mammals in the Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
. She also gave birth to three children, Anne (born 1921), Daniel (born 1925) and Randle (born 1928).
Death
Annie Meinertzhagen died at her estate at Swordale on 6 July 1928, just over three months after the birth of her third child, in an apparent shooting accident in the presence of her husband. The circumstances of her death were controversial, though no inquest or enquiry took place. Richard Meinertzhagen’s diary entry for 1 August 1928 reads:”I have not written up my story for some weeks not because I have had nothing to say but because my heart has been too full of sorrow my soul too overwhelmed with unhappiness. My darling Annie died on July 6th as a result of a terrible accident at Swordale. We had been practising with my revolver and had just finished when I went to bring back the target. I heard a shot behind me and saw my darling fall with a bullet through her head.”
Brian Garfield
Brian Garfield
Brian Francis Wynne Garfield is an American novelist and screenwriter. He wrote his first published book at the age of eighteen and wrote several novels under such pen names as "Frank Wynne" and "'Brian Wynne" before gaining prominence when his book Hopscotch won the 1976 Edgar Award for Best Novel...
comments, in his exposé of Richard Meinertzhagen’s life and character:
”To those who believe that Annie’s death was no accident, the circumstantial evidence seems persuasive. The path of the bullet would seem to create doubt as to whether she could have inflicted the wound on herself. RM was at least a foot taller than his wife, so a downward shot through her head and spine – especially if she were leaning forward a bit – could have been fired much more readily by him than by her.
”It is argued that Annie would not likely have shot herself by accident. She was an expert with firearms, having grown up with them in the landed hunting set and having spent years hunting birds all over the world and providing specimens to the leading museums.”
”Those who believe she was murdered point out that if ever in RM’s long and bloody career there was a smoking gun, this was that case – literally, with its bullet driven through Annie’s head and spine at point-blank range. They cite the standard homicide trinity; method, opportunity, and motive. Annie was shot to death at close range; her husband was the only witness; she died under suspicious circumstances at a time when her death was very much to his benefit because, they point out, it kept her from exposing his bird thefts, it freed him to carry on with his pubescent cousins, and it left him with a large income for life.”
Publications
Annie Meinertzhagen’s ornithological research was mainly concerned with waderWader
Waders, called shorebirds in North America , are members of the order Charadriiformes, excluding the more marine web-footed seabird groups. The latter are the skuas , gulls , terns , skimmers , and auks...
s and duck
Duck
Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered...
s. Under her maiden name she authored a series of articles on the moults of British ducks and waders which formed the basis of her contributions on their plumages to Witherby
Henry Witherby
Henry Forbes Witherby, M.B.E., F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. was a noted British ornithologist, author, publisher and founding editor of British Birds magazine....
’s “Practical Handbook of British Birds” (1919–1924). Under her married name she made several important contributions to the Ibis
Ibis (journal)
Ibis, subtitled the International Journal of Avian Science, is the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the British Ornithologists' Union. Topics covered include ecology, conservation, behaviour, palaeontology, and taxonomy of birds. The editor-in-chief is Paul F. Donald. The journal is published by...
, including review papers on the genus Burhinus
Burhinus
Burhinus is a genus of bird in the Burhinidae family. It contains the following species:* Bush Stone-Curlew * Double-striped Thick-knee * Peruvian Thick-knee...
in 1924, the subfamily Scolopacinae in 1926, and the family Cursoridae
Courser
The Coursers are a group of birds which together with the pratincoles make up the family Glareolidae. They have long legs, short wings and long pointed bills which curve downwards...
in 1927.
Recognition
- 1915 – Honorary Lady Member of the British Ornithologists' UnionBritish Ornithologists' UnionThe British Ornithologists' Union aims to encourage the study of birds in Britain, Europe and elsewhere, in order to understand their biology and to aid their conservation....
- 1919 – Corresponding Member of the American Ornithologists' UnionAmerican Ornithologists' UnionThe American Ornithologists' Union is an ornithological organization in the USA. Unlike the National Audubon Society, its members are primarily professional ornithologists rather than amateur birders...
She is also honoured in the subspecific name of the Antipodes Snipe
Antipodes Snipe
The Antipodes Snipe or Antipodes Island Snipe is an isolated subspecies of the Subantarctic Snipe that is endemic to the Antipodes Islands, a subantarctic island group south of New Zealand in the Southern Ocean.-Taxonomy and etymology:The Antipodes Snipe was first collected by Fairchild in 1887,...
(Coenocorypha aucklandica meinertzhagenae), described by Walter Rothschild in 1927.