She became the world's expert on Mallophaga, or chewing lice; however, her work is cast into question by her suspected role in Meinertzhagen's many scientific frauds.
[2] When Clay was eleven years old, her first cousin once-removed, or "uncle", Richard Meinertzhagen, came to live in the house beside her family's, No.
[3] Meinertzhagen was a prominent ornithologist and a genuinely distinguished soldier, but he was also a "colossal fraud", who stole bird specimens and described spurious species from them, and invented and embellished military exploits.
[6] Later he was to write in his diaries, contradictorily, that he didn't notice Clay and her sisters until they were older; that he felt a mystical bond with her when he first saw her; and that he dreamt of her when she was born.
[7] On 6 July 1928, Meinertzhagen's wife Annie died in questionable circumstances, from what was ruled to be an accidental gunshot wound.
Theresa was baptised at St Martin-in-the-Fields church not long after Annie's death, with Meinertzhagen as her sponsor.
[15] In 1955 she gained her DSc from the University of Edinburgh on the basis of sustained original, authoritative work on Mallophaga, much of it published in scientific journals.
The result was that 201 genera and 2,657 species were considered valid… Publication of this important paper marked the beginning of the new era in lice taxonomy, as it served as the new base from which further research could be undertaken.
As his secretary, she was in a position to help him falsify diaries and records, and as a volunteer at the British Museum she is suspected of having facilitated his thefts.
[10] Early in World War II, Clay was recruited into MI5 to assist Victor Rothschild, Miriam's brother.
[18] Clay married the widower Rodney G. Searight, a wealthy retired businessman who spent most of his life in the Middle East, in 1975.