Dr Margaret Stanier
MARGARET WAS BORN IN 1919, the second of 4 children. Her father was a solicitor, her mother a horticulturalist. She was taught at home by her mother, using the PNEU programme, until she was 12, when she went to St Swithun's School in Winchester. She won a science scholarship to Somerville College, Oxford (with rooms next to Iris Murdoch) in 1938. After graduating in Animal Physiology she worked for some time in the Biochemistry Laboratory at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, while doing a research project on Vitamin K for a B.Sc., and some physiology tutoring for Somerville. In 1947 she went out to Makerere College, Kampala, Uganda, to teach physiology to medical students, and was there for 8 years. The research project she did there, on blood proteins of nomadic tribes who live on very high protein diets, gained her an Oxford D.Phil. During that time she went to carpentry classes and did a lot of sailing on Lake Victoria. She returned to England in 1955 and she joined the Department of Experimental Medicine in Cambridge, undertook agricultural research at the Brabaham Institute and in 1962 was elected to a Fellowship at Newnham College with the impressive title of 'College Lecturer in Physiology and Director of Studies in Medicine and Veterinary Science'. She was co-author of a students'textbook, 'Physiological Processes', a very clear exposition inspired by her teaching experience, as well as authoring or coauthoring many works published in Nature and elsewhere.
Margaret had very many interests and enthusiasms. Natural history, especially botany, was a lifelong interest, and she was active in the Cambridge Naturalists' Trust and on the Devil's Ditch Committee. She learned how to spin, and knitted wonderful garments from the spun wool. She enjoyed astronomy, and looked after the Newnham telescope, introducing many students to the heavens. This led to her interest in sundials. Friends and relatives in many parts of the world possess sundials which Margaret designed or made for them.
Margaret loved to travel, and frequently visited friends and relatives on every continent, always writing fascinating letters home, and converting them into illustrated diaries. One cousin in Tasmania wrote 'we really enjoyed her times with us. I love visitors that are really INTERESTED in things'. How true. It was Margaret's ability to share with others her enthusiasm and interest in everything which made her such a good teacher and excellent companion. She was made a Fellow Emerita of Newnham College when she retired in 1984. A Newnham colleague introduced her to bell-ringing, and she became so enthusiastic that she took part in practices in different villages every night of the week. She became Editor of the British Sundial Society's Bulletin in 1997 and her last editorial appeared in March 2006. She also wrote illustrated books on 'Oxford Sundials'and 'Cambridge Sundials'.
Margaret came to Swaffham Prior in 1964 and within the village was a well known figure. She jogged daily; helped to restore the bells; as Bell Tower Captain she trained an enthusiastic group of excellent young bellringers who still ring when returning to the village; she designed and controlled the production of the sundial in the school playground celebrating the millennium; she reported Parish Council meetings; was involved in many of the exciting local controversies such as lighting in the churchyard, the chiming of the clock, the heating of the ringing chamber (all with a great humour and determined commitment); she was always happy to volunteer for almost anything such as representing the over 65's on the Village Hall Committee and reading the lesson in Church. Margaret was always open to new ideas; she was very forthright, had strong feelings about Crier covers ("does the artist really know what he's drawn!?") and she was what can only be called "a real goer"(a phrase she would have considered carefully before accepting it).
Dr Margaret Stanier died on 13 September at the age of 88 and a Memorial Meeting will be held in Newnham College at 2.00pm on Saturday 9th February. Margaret (known as Peggy to all bellringers throughout England) will be greatly missed.