Beatrice Gillam

Beatrice Gillam MBE (25 January 1920 – 1 March 2016 ) was an English naturalist, ecologist and conservation advocate. She was awarded an MBE in the 1983 New Year Honours for her work in wildlife conservation; reporting on the award, the Gazette & Herald described her as 'Wiltshire's foremost naturalist'

Early life and education Gillam was born in Carlisle, Cumbria, to Major William A. Gillam and Beatrice Christian (née Pullar), the middle of three sisters and was baptised in Carlisle Cathedral. During the 1920s and 1930s, the family lived in Down Hatherleigh near Cheltenham, Burnham-on-Sea and Littleham Cross near Exmouth. In Burnham, Gillam was educated by a governess; she and her older sister, Anne, then briefly attended Oakover School. When the family moved to Littleham Cross, the girls attended Southlands School in Exmouth, where Gillam played on the netball and hockey teams and captained the lacrosse team. She also performed in school plays and was a member of the Girl Guides. She and Anne would cycle to Woodbury Common to look for butterflies and birds' nests. In 1941, Gillam graduated from Bedford Froebel College of Education with a 1st Class Teacher's Certificate. She continued to work as an occupational therapist, first at St James's Hospital, Devizes, then part-time at Greathouse Leonard Cheshire Home near Chippenham and finally peripatetically for Wiltshire Council, until 1973, excluding the year she attended Bristol University. In 1974, she was involved in the establishment of the Wiltshire Ornithological Society, whose magazine, Hobby, she edited between 1975 and 1980, and she also founded the Wiltshire branch of Butterfly Conservation. She was a founder member of the Wiltshire Natural History Forum.

Published works

The Wiltshire Flora (Editor), Pisces Publications, 1993 'The Distribution of Badgers in Wiltshire 1966', Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, Volume 62, 1967