Evelyn M Lobley  

Evelyn M Lobley, from Hexham, Northumberland, became an expert in identifying bog mosses or sphagnum after teaching herself. She was president of the British Bryological Society for a year.

Bryology is the branch of botany concerned with the scientific study of bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, and hornworts). Bryologists are people who have an active interest in observing, recording, classifying or researching bryophytes.

Evelyn was one such person, despite little formal education, due in part to ill-health, she went on to actively map the locations of mosses growing across the North East between the 1930s and the 1970s. Many of the rare species she found have not been recorded by anyone else since. She enjoyed getting out into the Northumberland countryside, as well as the challenges of extensive fieldwork.

Evelyn also travelled to Scotland, and its islands, and Northern Ireland to study the bog mosses growing there. Her collection of specimens included species of moss rarely found in Britain, such as Water Rock-bristle, from the Simonside hills near Rothbury in Northumberland, which she discovered in 1964.

She enjoyed the support and encouragement of fellow members of the Natural History Society when she attended her first meeting in 1930. As a lifelong member, and a knowledgeable leader within the organisation, she went on to help new members with their fieldwork. She published papers and collaborated with scientists and other researchers.

She also had a keen interest in bird-watching throughout her life. When she died, she left her collection of 4,500 moss specimens to the Great North Museum: Hancock in Newcastle.

Entry written by Maggie Davison