{{Short description|English zoologist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Lilian Sheldon | image = <!-- just the filename, without the File: or Image: prefix or enclosing brackets --> | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = May 1862 | birth_place = Handsworth, West Midlands, England | death_date = 6 May 1942 | death_place = Exmouth, Devon, England | alma_mater = Handsworth Ladys College <br /> Newnham College | education = | other_names = | occupation = zoologist | years_active = | known_for = morphology of ''Cynthia Rustica'' | notable_works = }} '''Lilian Sheldon''' (May 1862 &ndash; 6 May 1942) was an English zoologist.<ref name=creese/>

==Life== Sheldon was born in Handsworth in 1862 where her father was the vicar<ref name=helen/> (one source says 1860).<ref name=girton>{{Cite book|last=Cambridge)|first=Girton College (University of|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mIefAAAAMAAJ&q=Helen+Sheldon+sydenham|title=Girton College Register: 1869-1946|date=1948|publisher=Privately printed for Girton College|language=en}}</ref> She had two brothers who survived and four sisters. Her parents Ann (born Sharp) and the Reverend John Sheldon arranged for their daughters to attend Handsworth Ladies' College and remarkably three of the girls went on to higher education in Cambridge.<ref name=helen>{{Cite ODNB|title=Sheldon, Helen Maud (1859–1945), headmistress and educationist|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-58462|access-date=2020-09-22|year = 2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/58462}}</ref> Lillian Sheldon went to Newnham College in 1880<ref name=creese/> and two others to Girton College. Her elder sister Helen Sheldon became a notable headteacher at Sydenham.<ref name=girton/>

Lilian took two Natural Sciences Tripos examinations in Cambridge in 1883 and 1884.<ref name=creese/>

Sheldon conducted research on the development of the newt embryo with Alice Johnson and, as well, on the anatomy and morphology of ''Cynthia rustica'' (now called ''Styela rustica'')<ref>{{cite web|title=Cynthia rustica|website=World Register of Marine Species|url=http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=252375}}</ref> and ''Peripatus''. Her results were published in the ''Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science''.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Sheldon, Lilian|title=Memoirs: Note on the Ciliated Pit of Ascidians and its Relation to the Nerve-ganglion and so-called Hypophysial Gland; and an Account of the Anatomy of Cynthia Rustica (?)|journal=Journal of Cell Science|volume=2|issue=109|year=1887|pages=131–148|url=http://jcs.biologists.org/content/s2-28/109/131}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=http://jcs.biologists.org/content/s2-30/117/1|author=Sheldon, Lilian|title=Memoirs: The Maturation of the Ovum in the Cape and New Zealand Species of Peripatus|journal=Journal of Cell Science|volume=2|issue=117|year=1889|pages=1–29}}</ref> Sheldon also contributed a section on Nemertines to volume 2 of the ''Cambridge Natural History'' series.<ref>{{cite book|year=1901|location=London|publisher=Macmillan & Co.|chapter=Chapter V. ''Nemertinea'' by Lilian Sheldon|title=Volume II|series=The Cambridge Natural History|chapter-url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044106445497;view=1up;seq=113}}</ref> She worked at the College as a demonstrator on morphology from 1892 to 1893, and lectured on comparative anatomy from 1893 to 1898. She was a College associate from 1894 to 1906. She retired from academia around 1898.<ref name=creese/>

She later published a number of articles on traditional Devonshire buildings in the Transactions of the Devonshire Association. During World War I, she worked for YMCA in Birmingham, where she was one of the earliest women drivers in the country.

In 1931 her brother Gilbert Sheldon died. He had suffered from paralysis nearly all his life but he had published a number of books and travelled widely with his six sisters.<ref>{{Cite web|title=At the Circulating Library Author Information: Gilbert Sheldon|url=http://www.victorianresearch.org/atcl/show_author.php?aid=2358|access-date=2020-09-22|website=www.victorianresearch.org}}</ref> It was Lilian and Walter de la Mare who wrote the introduction to his last work published in 1932.<ref>{{Cite book|asin=B0017Y0EOA|year=1932|first=Gilbert|last= Sheldon|title=The Transition From Roman Britain To Christian England. A.D.368-664}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1017/S0003598X00007766|title=THE TRANSITION FROM ROMAN BRITAIN TO CHRISTIAN ENGLAND (A.D. 368-664). By Sheldon Gilbert Macmillan, 1932. Pp. XXIII, 219, with map. 10s.|year=1933|last1=Collingwood|first1=R. G.|journal=Antiquity|volume=7|issue=25|pages=111–113|s2cid=163620267}}</ref>

She also served on the local hospital committee at Exmouth. Sheldon died there at the age of 80.<ref name=creese>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=amtGAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA110 |title=Ladies in the Laboratory? American and British Women in Science, 1800-1900: A Survey of Their Contributions to Research |page=110 |last=Creese |first=Mary R S |year=2000 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=0585276846}}</ref>

== References == {{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheldon, Lilian}} Category:20th-century English zoologists Category:1862 births Category:1942 deaths Category:British women zoologists Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Category:19th-century British zoologists Category:19th-century English women scientists Category:20th-century English women scientists Category:People from Handsworth, West Midlands Category:20th-century British women biologists