Papers of Dr May Young concerning the work of the Nottinghamshire Trust for Nature Conservation, 1968-1976

The papers represent a private member's working involvement in the Nottingham Trust for Nature Conservation and similar societies of which Dr Young was a member. They are not the official archive of the trust, and inevitably therefore give only an incomplete picture of its organisation and its procedures. Correspondence, minutes, annual reports, newsletters and files concerning particular issues do however reflect the development and activities of the trust, with its acquisition of Treswell Wood being a prominent feature.

The papers of other organisations are of a similar nature, including newsletters, minutes and annual reports.

May Young was born in China in 1912, the daughter of missionaries from Australia, and was fluent in spoken and written Chinese. She attended the University of Melbourne in 1931 and transferred to the University of Edinburgh a year later where she obtained her first degree in Zoology in 1935. She also obtained a Scottish Education Certificate and Cambridge Teaching Diploma. After a few years of teaching, she registered for a higher degree at the University of London and in 1937 began as a graduate student at the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Young completed her Ph.D. studies in 1939 and spent the war years as a research parasitologist studying Trichinella in children.

She moved to The University of Nottingham's Zoology Department to become a lecturer in 1944 and her undergraduate teaching there concentrated on invertebrates and parasitic worms and flukes. Through her interest in flukes in freshwater fish she became closely associated with the Freshwater Biological Station at Lake Windermere. She was an active member of the British Society of Parasitology for her interests in the ecology and taxonomy of fish parasites. She organised the Society's meeting when it came to Nottingham in 1974. She retired from teaching in 1976 and died on 14 January 1981.

Dr Young was an active member of the Nottinghamshire Trust for Nature Conservation, and a council member from 1969. She was also active in the Lincolnshire Trust for Nature Conservation and the Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves, which acted as the national association of county trusts for nature conservation.

Material is arranged according to form (e.g. minutes, annual reports) and listed chronologically.

ACCESS: Accessible to all registered readers.

REPROGRAPHIC: Photocopies and photographic copies can be supplied for educational use and private study purposes only, depending on copyright status and the condition of the documents.

NOTE: Copyright on all Finding Aids belongs to the University of Nottingham.

• In the reading room of The University of Nottingham's Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections: Typescript Catalogue, 4 pp
• At the National Register of Archives, London: Typescript Catalogue, 4 pp

COPYRIGHT: Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the Keeper of the Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections (email mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk). The Department will try to assist in identifying copyright owners but this can often be difficult and the responsibility for copyright clearance before publication ultimately rests with the person wishing to publish.

LANGUAGE: English

The papers were given to The University of Nottingham's Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections by Dr Young.