Elsie Conway

Elsie Conway (née Phillips, 15 March 1902 – 22 July 1992) was a British phycologist. She served as president of the British Phycological Society from 1965 to 1967, and was one of the earliest women Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Early life and education Conway was born Elsie Phillips on 15 March 1902 in Aldford, Cheshire, England, the elder daughter of William and Margaret Phillips. She attended the Queen's School in Chester from 1912 to 1919. She then studied botany at the University of Liverpool, achieving a Bachelor of Science in 1922, Honours in 1923, and PhD in 1925. Contact with Margery Knight started her life-long interest in algae. However, her thesis, supervised by John McLean Thompson, was on floral morphology.

However, Conway returned to university life in 1938, at the University of Glasgow where she continued until retiring in 1969.

They had three sons. The eldest, John Conway, became a professor of history at the University of British Columbia. The second, Robert Conway, was a senior lecturer in radioastronomy at University of Manchester and the third son, Martin Conway, was president of the Selly Oak Colleges in Birmingham.

The couple divorced in 1948.

In later life she returned to live in Chester and died on 22 July 1992.