Ruth Holden . 
155 
specimens. Our intention was to publish a joint description of the 
Indian collections. Miss Holden was an excellent critic and, while 
firmly convinced of the correctness of views which I ventured to 
call in question, she was always able to give reasons for the faith 
which was in her. 
The greater part of her work was concerned with the affinities 
of Cretaceous and Jurassic Coniferous stems and to this difficult 
branch of investigation she made several important contributions ; 
she also added considerably to our more precise knowledge of the 
nature of some Indian fossil Conifers and certain Cycadophytan 
European genera. In the summer of 1911 she collected material in 
Prince Edward Island and on the south shore of New Brunswick 
which led to the publication of a paper in the Annals of Botany 
in 1913. Shortly before leaving England she completed an account 
of a new type of petrified stem of Cordaitalean affinity from the 
Lower Gondwana rocks of India which has not yet been published. 
While recognising the value of the work accomplished in the short 
time that had elapsed since the completion of her degree course, 
those who had the privilege of knowing Miss Holden were convinced 
that she would accomplish much more in the future; she had the 
qualifications which make for success, a strong personality, modesty 
combined with wholesome self-confidence, untiring energy, and 
enthusiasm. 
Miss Holden became a post-graduate student of Newnham 
College and was afterwards elected to a Fellowship, an event which 
gave her genuine satisfaction. Soon after the outbreak of the war 
she attended the first course of Red Cross lectures given at 
Cambridge and served in a hospital for convalescent Belgian soldiers. 
Anxious to obtain a more thorough training she spent three 
strenuous months at Addenbrooke’s Hospital with a view to a post 
in a British Military hospital, but to her great disappointment her 
nationality proved to be an obstacle. After an unsuccessful attempt 
to return to scientific work she succeeded in the face of many 
difficulties in being admitted a member of the first Millicent Fawcett 
Medical Unit equipped in this country for service in Russia. In 
December, 1916 she temporarily resigned her Fellowship at 
Newnham and left for Petrograd. Miss Jordan Lloyd writes: “ With 
the whole-hearted enthusiasm with which she carried out any 
work she undertook, she set to work to learn Russian and so 
successful was she that ultimately she was appointed interpreter and 
courier to the Unit. She worked for a time in Petrograd and then 
