THE YORKSHIRE YEARS : 1941 - 1955
Dr. Eva Crane, OBE, PhD


I HAVE read with immense interest the many excellent
obituaries written about Dr Eva Crane and her wonderful
contribution to beekeeping that can be said to have
begun in the summer of 1942 in the City of Sheffield.
However, I would like to politely dispel the myth that the
Bee Research Association (BRA) was founded at Woodside
House, Chalfont Heights, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire.
In fact, it is well documented that the group’s official
starting point was Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire.

MARRIAGE AND SHEFFIELD

We know that Dr Crane had married Lieutenant-
Commander James A Crane in 1942 while she was a
principal lecturer in the Physics Department at the
University of Sheffield. At the time of her marriage, James
was in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR)1, it was
wartime and naturally enough, he was often at sea2. At the
end of hostilities in Europe he was posted to the Far East
until he resigned his commission in 1946 to return to his
wife in Sheffield. Before the Second World War broke out,
James Crane had a career marked out in ship brokerage.
The Cranes lineage had interests in iron and steel foundries
and castings in the Ipswich area, in addition to shipping
connections and finance.

Michael Badger MBE, MA