Grace Hickling

Grace Hickling MBE (10 August 1908 – 30 December 1986) was an English ornithologist and naturalist known for studying wildlife on the Farne Islands, in the North Sea off the Northumberland coast.

[1][2] Hickling embarked on a teaching career, but was called up to work as an intelligence officer on 1 September 1939, a few days prior to Britain's entry into World War II.

Based at the regional war room in Newcastle upon Tyne, she was originally offered the standard salary of £400, until it was discovered that she was a woman and her pay was cut by £100.

[1] Hickling was also an authority on grey seals, and with John Coulson of Durham University, published several scientific papers on their breeding and life-cycles.

[1] Claire Jones and the Natural History Society of Northumbria curated a Women Naturalists of North East England exhibition in 2018.