- 1911: At the age of 16, she went to the North London Collegiate School in London.
- 1913: She left London to go to the University College of North Wales, Bangor to study Botany.
- 1917: After graduating, she went as a volunteer to the Department of Mycology at the Rothamsted Research Institute in Hertfordshire.
- 1922: Whilst at Rothamstead, she gained an MSc from the University of Wales.
- 1927: She received a Georgina Sweet Fellowship from the International Federation of University Women and went to study in Australia and New Zealand for a year.
- 1943: She rceived a DSc from the University of Wales.
- 1960: Mary received an OBE on her retirement and was made a Fellow of the Institute of Biology (FinstBiol).
- Mary was an excellent mountaineer, and was the first person to climb Mount Spencer in New Zealand.
- 1963: She climbed Mount Fuji.
- 1985: She published her final scientific paper.
‘She began her career at Rothamsted in August 1917 as an assistant botanist under the guidance of the first female botanist employed at Rothamsted.’ – Jean Beagle Ristaino, ‘Pioneering Women in Plant Pathology’ (The American Phytopathological Society 2008), tud. 87