Part III: Antarctica and Academe - Scott Polar Research Institute

entry into force of the international Antarctic Treaty.) I expressed interest, was shortlisted,
interviewed and appointed. [The interview Board included Ray Beverton,
Secretary of NERC, Bunny Fuchs, Professor Tony Fogg, biologist, and Professor John
Sutton, geologist, [as well as the obligatory Civil Service representative [?]. ]
Professors Alan Parkes and Bill Thorpe, both FRS, who were mainly familiar
with my African work provided good references. Alan stated that in his opinion I
was an outstanding ecologist, one of the best, possibly the best, in the United
Kingdom, and among the leaders in the world. I had done splendid work in
establishing the Nuffield Unit in the Queen Elizabeth Park, Uganda, and in evolving
a programme of research suited to the particular conditions under which the Unit
had to operate. My directorship of the Tsavo Research Project was foredoomed by
political and personal factors over which I had no control, and ‘under which my
interest in scientific conservation as opposed to blind preservation had little scope’. I
had to my credit numerous publications, several of which were of monograph size.
The award to me, in 1966, of the Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society was
largely for my Antarctic work - the African research had not then been written up. In
addition to my scientific ability, he said, ‘I was notable for my resolution, organising
power and personal energy. I inspired great loyalty in, and gave it to, my staff.
Because of my dedication to scientific work I tended to be impatient and sometimes
intolerant of what I regarded as obstruction or lack of support, but this undoubtedly
contributed to my capacitv for getting things done!’ In view of my scientific interests
and past experience, both of field work in the Antarctic and Africa, and of laboratory
work and administration in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, and of my personal
qualities - he believed that I was almost ideally fitted for the post of SPSO in charge
of the Life Sciences Programme of the British Antarctic Survey.
Bill wrote that he had a very high opinion indeed of my work and ability. I had
carried out first class ecological studies of large mammals in East Africa, in particular
the hippopotamus while at NUTAE Animal Ecology in Uganda; and subsequently
with elephants in Kenya. I was ‘certainly one of the best animal ecologists at present
working in the field’ and all I did ‘shows a penetrating mind and ability to get to the
very core of a problem. I was ‘also extremely capable in organizing and maintaining
very large scale experiments’. He had not had any personal acquaintance with my
previous work in the Antarctic but supposed that my early experience there would
be a great asset for the present post and to take on this new work might be, in a
sense, returning to an old love.
In this way I returned to my earlier Antarctic and marine mammal interests, and
took up a new job at the Nature Conservancy’s Monkswood Research Station.
Monkswood was about 45 minutes drive from my home in Coton near Cambridge,
via Madingley, St Ives and Abbots Ripton. The drive was pleasant in summer, but
not so enjoyable in winter, driving through the fenland frosts and dense mists – it
was dangerous even. The BAS Zoology Section was now housed in a prefabricated
building on the edge of Monks Wood, a Nature Reserve. The Botany and Zoology
Sections now comprised the Life Sciences Division created on 1 October l969 and
headed by me. Although the principle administrative posts in BAS had been
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