Sidnie Milana Manton, 4 May 1902 - 2 January 1979

Abstract

Sidnie Milana Manton, one of the outstanding zoologists of her time, and the elder of the two daughters of George Sidney Frederick Manton and Milana Angele Terese ( née d’Humy), was born in London on 4 May 1902. Both sides of the family seem to have produced craftsmen of one sort or another and this ability to use, and enjoy using, her hands she inherited in full measure. Her father, a dental surgeon, was skilled in wood-carving and also worked with metals and enamels. One of his ancestors was Joe Manton, the gunsmith, a celebrated maker of flintlock guns, who also ran a fashionable London shooting range in the early 19th century. Her mother, of mixed Scottish and French ancestry, came from a family with a strong artistic bent, and was herself gifted in this direction, being skilled at drawing and needlework and did design work for Liberty’s. Sidnie enjoyed a comfortable home in which the constant example of two manually skilled parents who were always making things, from jewellery to lenses and furnishings, and who encouraged youthful assistants, had a great influence on her. Not surprisingly, as a child much of her spare time was spent making things, and she was also interested in pets, and in drawing creatures that she had collected. A probably natural inclination to collect plants and animals was encouraged from an early age, especially by her mother, who aroused an interest in natural history in both Sidnie and her sister. This led to remarkable results for not only were both destined to become professional biologists, Sidnie a zoologist and Irene a botanist, but both were eventually elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society—the only case in its histoiy of two sisters achieving this distinction.