Nationality British Role Author Name R. R. | Occupation Naturalist
Author Education Eastbourne College Children Alastair Fitter | |
Born 1 March 1913 ( 1913-03-01 ) Streatham, London, England Died September 3, 2005, Cambridge Alma mater London School of Economics and Political Science People also search for Alastair Fitter, Marjorie Blamey Books The wild flowers of Britain an, The Wild Flowers of Britain & I, The Birds of Britain and Euro, London's Natural History, The Pocket Guide to Nests an | ||
Richard Sidney Richmond Fitter (1 March 1913 – 3 September 2005) was a British naturalist and author. He was an expert on wildflowers and authored several guides for amateur naturalists.
Life
Richard Fitter was born in Streatham, London, England, in 1913 and was educated at Eastbourne College and the London School of Economics, where he became a research assistant to Ivor Jennings. He was recruited to the Institute for Political and Economic Planning in 1936 by fellow ornithologist Max Nicholson, and in 1940 moved to the social research organisation Mass-Observation to investigate civilian morale for the Ministry of Information. During the Second World War he worked at the operation research section of the Coastal Command. Then in 1945 he was appointed secretary of the Wildlife Conservation Special Committee of the Ministry of Town and Country Planning and his first book, London's Natural History, was published.
In 1946, Fitter became assistant editor of The Countryman and moved from London to Burford, Oxfordshire, where his writing career flourished. He wrote a number of field guides, other books, articles and notes. He was heavily involved with nature conservation organisations including the Council for Nature, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the Fauna and Flora Preservation Society. He also served on the councils of the RSPB and the British Trust for Ornithology, and founded the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Naturalists' Trust. In later life he moved to Great Shelford, Cambridge.
His son, Alastair Fitter, is a professor of biology at the University of York and in 2002 father and son jointly authored a paper in Science analysing the changing phenology of plant flowering times due to global warming. Richard Fitter was also one of the leading figures in the international wildlife conservation movement, and for many years the Honorary Secretary of the Fauna Preservation Society (now Fauna and Flora International).
Obituaries were published in The Times (10 September 2005), Daily Telegraph (6 September 2005), The Guardian, The Independent He was also involved in the search for the Loch Ness Monster, being a director of the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau.