Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Chandler, Marjorie Elizabeth Jane

18 May 1897 - 1 October 1983

Marjorie Chandler was a significant member of the Milford-on-Sea Historical Record Society. She was born in Leamington Spa, the oldest of six children of Frederick Augustus, a jeweller, and Alice Sarah (née Roberts). She studied at Leamington High School and Cambridge University, ‘graduating’ in 1919 with first class honours in Natural Sciences. (Cambridge did not formally award degrees to women until 1948).

She moved to Milford in 1920 to work as research assistant to Eleanor Mary Reid, herself the distinguished wife of the (recently deceased) distinguished botanist and palaeontologist, Clement Reid. She thus became one of five distinguished palaeontologists in Milford, following on from Barbara Marchioness of Hastings, Henry Keeping, and Clement and Eleanor Reid. Her work in palaeontology is too extensive to list here (see ‘Other Comments’ below).

Marjorie Chandler played a full role in the affairs of Milford, acting as Secretary of the Parochial Church Council, and contributing four articles to Milford-on-Sea Historical Record Society’s Occasional Magazine.

In her retirement in Dorset, she was a keen gardener and involved with church-related activities while still keeping in contact with the scientific world through other palaeobotanists. She moved later to an apartment in Kempsford, Gloucestershire, though she retained a link to Milford, where a burial plot is still listed in her name.

Sources

David Clark, Hordle Cliff's rock quintet, Milford-on-Sea Historical Record Society Occasional Magazine NS5, (2018) 14-26.

Milford-on-Sea Historical Record Society archives

Portrait

Contribution to county’s history

Marjorie Chandler was first and foremost a palaeontologist, with research interests stretching across central and south-east England, including Hordle Cliffs in Milford, a fruitful area for other fossil-collectors in the village. Her contributions to the Occasional Magazine reflected both her scientific studies and her interest in the history of All Saints’ Church, Milford.

Relevant published works

• Note on the fossils from a temporary exposure in sands at Keyhaven in 1939-40, Milford-on-Sea Historical Record Society Occasional Magazine 5, 2 (January 1948) 23-26.

• The Milford Church Chest, with especial reference to the Poor Children and Vagrants, Milford-on-Sea Historical Record Society Occasional Magazine 5, 6 (October 1955) 16-31.

• Henry Keeping – Geologist (1827-1924), Milford-on-Sea Historical Record Society Occasional Magazine NS1, 1 (1980) 18-20.

• Milford Church – The Norman Arches and Tower Arch, Milford-on-Sea Historical Record Society Occasional Magazine NS1, 2 (1982) 4-5.

Critical Comments

Other Comments

For a full list of Chandler’s extensive output, see Margaret E Collinson, ed., Tertiary Research V l 9 Nos 1-4 ‘Plants and Their Palaeoecology: Examples from the Last 80 million Years –The Marjory E. J. Chandler Memorial Album’.

Contributor

24 March, 2025, Barry Jolly

Keywords

Chandler, All Saints’ Church, Milford-on-Sea, palaeontology, Keyhaven, fossils, Henry Keeping

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