Mary Glen (known throughout her life as Molly), daughter of Thomas Osborne Glen, Customs & Excise officer, was born on the 7th July 1917 , in Wantage, Berkshire, England. By 1936 the family was at Loanhead Crescent, Newarthill. Molly matriculated at the University of Glasgow in 1936 , taking Botany, Chemistry and Natural Philosophy. In 1937-1938 she took Mathematics, Geology (in which she won a second class certificate in 1938) and Higher Ordinary Botany. In 1938-1939 she took Zoology and then honours Botany in 1939-1940. She graduated with a 1st class Honours B.Sc. in Pure Science on 28 June 1940 . She went on to become a Biology teacher at Hutcheson's Grammar School before being married in 1949 to Charles Palmar, who was a Curator of Natural History in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum from 1949 to 1984. They had three sons. After bringing them up and helping her husband over many years with his natural history photography and film making she went back to teaching Biology in the late 1960s. She was teaching at Park School in Glasgow when she died suddenly from a stroke in 1970 at the age of 53.
From the guide to the Papers of Molly Palmar (nèe Glen), 1917-1970, science graduate, University of Glasgow, Scotland, c1937-1945, (Glasgow University Archive Services)
