Background
Born at Dunkery, Park Road, Barnet on 17 August 1924, Wallis was the daughter of Leonard Francis Wallis (1880-1965) and Mary McCulloch Jones (1884-1957).
Born at Dunkery, Park Road, Barnet on 17 August 1924, Wallis was the daughter of Leonard Francis Wallis (1880-1965) and Mary McCulloch Jones (1884-1957).
She attended Street Paul"s Girls" School (1934-1943) and studied geography at Street Hugh"s College, Oxford, where she completed her Doctorate.Phil degree in 1954.
In 1951, she was appointed assistant to Resident Advisor Skelton, superintendent of the Map Room at the British Museum, succeeding him in 1967. She was the first woman to hold the post. In 1968 she was responsible for the acquisition of the map collection of the Royal United Services Institution.
She also discovered the earliest version of England"s first globe, by Emery Molyneux and thought to date from 1592, at Petworth House.
She was the chairman of the standing commission on the history of cartography of the International Cartographic Association. She served as President of The Society for Nautical Research, 1972-1988, and President of the British Cartographic Society.
Key publications include Carteret"s voyage round the world, 1766–1769, Cartographical innovations, and the Historians" guide to early British maps She died of cancer on 7 February 1995 at the Hospital of Street John and Street Elizabeth in Street John"s Wood, London. The Independent 14 February 1995, by West.R. Mead.