Sarah Martha Baker

As well as their main London home the family had a country house at Mersea Island where Baker first took an interest in seaweed.

[1] Baker began studying at University College London in 1906, where one of her teachers was the chemist Sir William Ramsay,[2] and received a Bachelor of Science degree with first class honours in 1909.

Not only had University College been the first academic institution in the UK to admit female students, but from 1890 its Department of Botany under Professor F.W.Oliver was quite progressive.

[3] In 1913 Baker received her doctorate for work on the effect of formaldehyde on living plants, and in 1914 was elected a fellow of the Linnaean Society.

[6] Baker's work on seaweed zoning explored the tendency for different types to thrive at different distances from the high tide mark.

[5] She undertook the laborious work of measuring distances on the shore, collecting specimens, putting them in numerous jars and "var[ying] their exposure to drying".

[12] On Sarah Baker's mother's Braithwaite side of the family, there was a strong tradition of active Quaker involvement and ministry including her grandmother, grandfather and aunt.