Paddy Bassett

Elsie Gertrude "Paddy" Bassett (née Thorpe, 15 July 1918 – 20 July 2019) was a New Zealand agricultural scientist. She graduated from Massey Agricultural College in 1941, becoming the first woman graduate from that institution. Bassett was also one of the first two women students accepted into Canterbury Agricultural College (now Lincoln University).

She was sent to boarding school in Timaru, where she attended Craighead Diocesan School and excelled in Latin and French. The school did not offer science subjects though, and as Bassett had decided to become a vet, after completing high school she enrolled for two years of intermediate study at Canterbury College, Christchurch (now University of Canterbury). However the nearest place to study veterinary science was Sydney, Australia, and Bassett decided to change her plans and study agriculture.

On 5 October 1943, she married Colin Holman Bassett at Holy Trinity Church in the Christchurch suburb of Avonside.

Career Bassett next moved to Hamilton, in the North Island of New Zealand, to continue her research under McMeekan at the newly-formed Ruakura Animal Research Station. In 1954 she enrolled at the University of Cambridge for her doctoral studies, spending two years studying and researching under John Dixon Boyd. Her PhD thesis, titled Observations on the anatomy of the ewe: with special reference to pregnancy and parturition, was completed in 1957. On her return to New Zealand, she settled in Dunedin and worked in the Medical Research Council's Endocrinology Unit at the University of Otago's Dunedin Medical School. Bassett retired from research in her 90s, having published more than 20 research papers.

Awards and honours In 2002, Bassett received a Massey University Anniversary Medal for her special contribution to her field.