Elizabeth Kathleen Goldie-Smith

(1 June 1922 – 27 September 1995)1

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU) has cataloged approximately a dozen specimens collected by or annotated by Elizabeth Kathleen Goldie-Smith, who usually signed her labels as “E.K.G.S.”  Our fungal collection is being cataloged into the searchable on-line database, www.mycoportal.org  As we continue to catalog our fungi it is probable that more specimens studied by Dr. Goldie-Smith will be found.

Dr. Elizabeth Kathleen Goldie-Smith (front row, right, in beige top)
at a meeting of the Balfour-Browne Club in Leicester, United Kingdom, in 1985.
Photograph courtesy of Dr. Garth Foster (far left, pink top), Balfour-Browne Club2

 

Elizabeth Kathleen Goldie-Smith earned her masters degree from the University of London in 1948, and her doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1953. The title of her doctoral thesis was “Studies in the Plasmodiophoraceae,” and her thesis advisor was Dr. John Nathaniel Couch. She named Sorodiscus cokeri Goldie-Sm. in honor of Dr. William Chambers Coker, also in the Botany Department in Chapel Hill.

In 1958 Dr. Goldie-Smith was a Technical Assistant in the Subdepartment of Quaternary Research of the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Dr. Goldie-Smith was an active member of the Balfour-Browne Club, a group devoted to the study of water beetles.  “She was an active member of the Club in the 1980’s, when she attended the meeting in Leicester and helped to organise [sic] the meeting the following year in Rye.  Kathleen did a lot of work at the nature reserve in Rye and published an illustrated booklet Life in Castle Water.  Latterly, she became more interested in flies, particularly Dixidae, and worked as the national recorder for this group…Local material in her collections have been given to the warden of the Rye nature reserve, but Dr. Henry Disney, of Cambridge Museum, has been given most of her entomological material.”

“Miss Kathleen Goldie-smith has taken over from Dr. Henry Disney the organization of the mapping scheme [of Dixidae flies], with Henry to advise, and she will refer all “tricky identifications” to him!  She will be pleased to receive records and specimens, especially living larvae which can be bred through, of any age; for identification purposes, preserved larvae should be at least 3rd instar.  For the continuation of her detailed study of the eggs, she is particularly interested in living larvae of any species other than Dixella autumnalis, D. aestivais and D. amphibia.   They can be posted first class, overnight, in wet plant material – not in water, and should preferably be preceded by notification of their imminent arrival.”6  It appears that some of her work on this subject was published posthumously in 2010.

In 1984 Dr. Goldie-Smith wrote Life in Castle Water , an illustrated guide to the aquatic life in Rye Harbour, a 465 hectare reserve, “recognized as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a Special Protection Area for birds under the [European Union] Birds Directive, a Special Area of Conservation under the [European Union] Habitats Directive and a Ramsar site that takes account of its importance as a wetland on an international scale.”4, 5

Though Dr. Goldie-Smith’s official address was “Wrens Cottage, New England Lane, Playden, Rye, East Sussex,” Dr. Garth Foster says, “I remember her living with her brother in Rye in two houses named Tweedledum and Tweedledee.”2

PUBLICATIONS:
Goldie-Smith, E. Kathleen and Julian R. Thorpe.  2010.  Eggs of British meniscus midges (Diptera:  Dixidae) observed by scanning electron microscopy. Freshwater Forum [volume?]:  215-224.
Goldie-Smith, E. K. 1989.  Distribution maps for Dixidae in Great Britain and Ireland.  Dipterists Digest 3:  8-26.
Goldie-Smith, E. K.  1989.  Laboratory rearing and egg development in tow species of Dixella (Diptera:  Dixidae).  Entomologist’s Gazette 40:  53-65.
Goldie-Smith, E. K. 1989.  The eggs of Dixella aestivalis Meigen, and brief comparisons with eggs of three other species of Dixella (Diptera;  Dixidae).  Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine 125:  105-117.
Goldie-Smith, E. K. 1989.  The eggs of Dixella obscura Loew, D. attica Pandazis and Dixa nubilipennis Curtis (Diptera:  Dixidae).  Dipterists Digest 3:  2-7.
Goldie-Smith, E. K. 1987.  Virus infections of larval Dixidae and other Culicoidea (Diptera:  Nematocera).  Entomologist’s Gazette 38:  137-139.
Goldie-Smith, E. K. 1987.  Asellus aquaticus (L.), Asellus meridianus (Racovitza) and Sphaeroma hookeri (Leach) in the Rye area.  Isopoda 1: [?pages?].
Goldie-Smith, E. K. 1984.  Life in Castle Water.  Rye Nature Reserve.
Goldie-Smith, E. K.  1956.  The maintenance of stock cultures of aquatic fungi.  Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 72:  158-166.
Goldie-Smith, E. K.  1956.  A new species of Woronina, and Sorodisus cokeri emended.  Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society  72:  348-356.
Goldie-Smith, E. K.  1954.  The position of Woronina polycistis in the Plasmodiophoraceae.  Am. J. of Botany 41:  441-448.
Couch, J. N., E.K. Goldie-Smith and W. J. Koch.  1953.  A demonstration of gross cultural characters, sporangia, and swimming spores in the new genus Actinoplanes.  J. Tennessee Acad. Sci. 28:  178-179. [Abstract]
Goldie-Smith, E. K. 1952.  The sporangial phase of Pythium undulatum Petersen.  Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientifc Society  68:  273-292.
Goldie-Smith, E. K. 1951.  A new species of Sorodiscus on Pythium.  Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society  67:  108-121.
Goldie-Smith, E. K. 1950.  Note on a method of inducing sporangium formation in Pythium undulatum Petersen, and in species of Saprolegnia.  Transactions of the British Mycological Society 33:  92-93.
Goldie-Smith, E. K. 1948.  M.Sc. thesis, University of London.
Goldie-Smith, E. K.  1946.  Chytridium lecythii (Ingold) n. comb.  Trans. of the British Mycological Society.  29(1-2):  68-69.

SOURCES:

  1. Meredith Tozzer, University of North Carolina Alumni Records, pers. comm. 1 November 2016.
    2.  Garth N. Foster, Balfour-Browne Club, pers. comm.  1 November 2016.
    3.  Foster, Garth N.  1996.  Obituary:  Dr. Elizabeth Kathleen Goldie-Smith.  Latissimus:  Newsletter of the Balfour-Browne Club 7:  16.
    4.  Barry Yates, Manager, Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, pers. comm.  1 November 2016.
    5.  “Rye Harbour.”  https://sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/visit/rye-harbour  accessed on 3 November 2016.
    6.  Chandler, Peter.  1988.  Recording Scheme, page 5.  http://www.online-keys.net/sciaroidea/1981_90/Chandler_1988_recoding_scheme.pdf  accessed on 3 November 2016