Steamboat Ladies

Rich completed an Honours in Natural Science (Chemistry) in 1887, becoming a steamboat lady in 1904 to collect a degree from the University of Dublin. In the meantime, she had held posts as Science Mistress at Howell s School, Llandaff(1887-1888) Ladies College, Grantham (1889-1892) and Roedean School (1892-1905). Then, in 1906, she was appointed as a Principal at Granville School, Leicester. In 1922, she moved back into academia as Research Assistant to the Professor of Botany, Queen Mary College, London, a position that she held until her death in 1939. 

Parkes, S. M. (1996). Trinity College, Dublin and the Steamboat Ladies 1904-1907. In Masson, M. R. and Simonton, D. (eds.), Women and Higher Education Past, Present and Future, Aberdeen University Press, Aberdeen, 1996. 

At the time (1906), it was believed that diets were complete as long as they contained the appropriate chemical functional units. In particular, it was known that the indol unit was required for certain biological functions. Willcock and Hopkins were the first to show that diets had to contain specific molecules — in this case, tryptophane — and that other indol-containing compounds would not function in its place. This initial study focused Hopkins attention on the essentiality in diets of certain amino acids and led him to formulate his hypothesis of accessory food factors, later to be named vitamins. 30 Willcock, another of the Steamboat Ladies (see Chap. 6), received a D.Sc. from Trinity College, Dublin, on the basis of her research. 

---