A Bermudian scientist who dedicated most of her life to studying fossils has been celebrated after she stepped down from the Natural History Museum in London.

Jill Darrell took centre stage when dozens of wellwishers, including colleagues, relatives and friends, gathered at the museum last month to celebrate her work as a palaeontologist.

Palaeontologist study and research fossils and Ms Darrell, who hails from Spanish Point in Pembroke, has retired after 50 years as a curator at the museum.

Her husband, Brian Rosen, a British geologist and historian, also worked there.

She said her interest in the field started in Bermuda, where, as a child, she was always intrigued by corals and rocks.

Her mother, who previously lived in England, brought a wealth of knowledge of geography and geology when she moved to the island.

She said: “My mom was terribly encouraging about natural history and I was a great beachgoer and swimmer and she always helped me with identifications.

“I remember one summer holiday we collected shells and I did a lovely collection and won a prize for it at my school. We always put the proper Latin names to these things.”

When she was 17, Ms Darrell left Bermuda to study for a bachelor’s degree in geology in England.

She recalled: “When I would come back for the holidays, I would look at the rocks and some of the fossils they contained.

“It was always wonderful coming back to Bermuda to see these things.”

After completing her degree, she noticed a vacancy advertised at the museum and secured an interview.

Ms Darrell said: “They were very pleased to employ someone who had lived on a coral reef island and knew what coral reefs looked like when they were alive.

“So, all of a sudden, things came together and I got my first job in 1975.”

She recalled: “It was a big thrill to get the job and over the years, I have seen the museum go through a lot of changes.

She said the role allowed her to travel the world on expeditions, occasionally paying for her own trips — with field work, including collecting specimens for the museum’s national collection, among her favourite duties.

She said: “The visitors who come through London, you know we have these tremendous collections and people from all over the world come through. It was very nice making contact with them.”

Ms Darrell, who is back on island for a few weeks, said she always enjoyed returning home, especially with her two sons.

She said: “I really wanted to show them Bermuda.

“You know I had a childhood memory of the beaches and collecting and sailing and swimming.”

In later years, Ms Darrell returned home as often as possible to share caring for her parents with her two sisters.

She said: “Now I came back this year after a gap of four years because my mother died in 2019.

“So I’m out here in Bermuda now, I’ve been retired and I’ve got more time to spend at home and it’s so nice.”

Ms Darrell also co-authored the book William Smith’s Fossils Reunitedon the late British geologist credited with creating the first geological map of England and Wales.

She curated Mr Smith’s collection at the museum and recalled that when she started working there, Dr Rosen, then her colleague, informed her that the items were of significant value.

Ms Darrell, together with Peter Wigley, Diana Clements and Hugh Torrens, set about scanning and digitising Mr Smith’s original manuscripts.

Ms Darrell said she was already missing her daily routine.

She explained: “I think what I miss most already is that contact with people because even now in London a lot of people work from home for a few days of the week.

“I haven’t been able to adapt to that. I like to go in because, if I work on collections, I would want to be near them.”

Her family is based in London, where Ms Darrell is assisting her successor, who hails from Colombia, with her new role.

Dr Rosen said Ms Darrell was famous for baking cakes for her colleagues, a tradition the two will miss.

Whenever she is in Bermuda, Ms Darrell and her husband explore the island, gathering geological information.

The couple also enjoy visiting museums, along with trips to nature reserves such as at Cooper’s Island and their favourite beaches.

They plan to carry out more geological work.

“We are looking at the geology of the island and there are these wonderful fossilised red soils here,” she said.

“We studied carbonates and corals in Derbyshire and my husband has just done a field guide there, so we are drawing comparisons with a modern carbonated environment like Bermuda and much older one like England.”

She added: “We can’t stop doing geology because it is in your blood.”

Ms Darrell offered words of advice to young people, especially women interested in palaeontology.

She said: “A science background is always important and sometimes it’s not that easy to get right or to get good teaching in science at school level.

“I remember I was a little behind in school and I had to take an extra chemistry course because that’s quite important once you start research.”

She said: “Database collection and keeping good records of where your data comes from is also important.”

Ms Darrell said there were prized collections of items from the groundbreaking British naturalist Charles Darwin at the Natural History Museum, including all his notebooks.

She said: “People go back into time by looking at those and he had a very good record of little notes which he put together for his theories.

“So record keeping is important.”

Ms Darrell admitted she had not “fully settled” into retirement.

She said: “I certainly have more time on hand now.

“Getting some projects done in Bermuda would be good and I may be finishing off some that I have started.”