Sir Peter Scott, famous naturalist, dies at 79

Press, 2 September 1989, Page 10

Sir Peter Scott, famous naturalist, dies at 79

NZPA-Reuter London The naturalist, Peter Scott, son of the explorer hero “Scott of the Antarctic” and a convinced believer in the existence of the Loch Ness Monster, has died of a heart attack, aged 79.

Hailed as one of the. most versatile Britons of his century, Sir Peter was an ecologist, painter, writer, ornithologist, yachtsman, war hero, broadcaster and a television personality.

In 1961 he founded the World Wildlife Fund, now known as the World Wide Fund for Nature. He devoted his life to protecting the earth from the ravages of the 20th century and carved himself a global reputation as a conservationist. The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, which he also founded, said he died on Tuesday, two weeks short of his 80th birthday. “The concept of wilderness is a noble one,” Sir Peter once said. “If man destroys things that are beautiful, he loses something that cannot easily be put into words.” But Sir Peter failed to fulfil one of his greatest ambitions — to convince the scientific world that the Loch Ness monster existed and that a family of relics of the dinosaur era lurked in the murky depths of the Scottish lake.

His intrepid father, Captain Robert Falcon Scott,

wrote to his wife from his deathbed in his Antarctic tent in 1912: "Make the boy interested in natural history. Make him a strenuous man.” The son lived up to his father’s advice. The naturalist, Sir David Attenborough, once described Sir Peter as the patron saint of wildlife, saying: “I think he has done more than anyone else to arouse the world ... to the fate which may overtake the natural world.” Considered one of the finest painters of birds this century, Sir Peter wrote 17 books and illustrated almost a dozen more. He even painted pictures of “Nessie,” as the Loch Ness monster is affectionately known, and

invented the scientific name “Nessiteras Rhombopteryx” for her. It means “Ness Monster With Diamond Fin” but cynics quickly reworked the name to read “Hoax by Sir Peter S.” Sir Peter, who was knighted in 1973, built his home at Slimbridge on the Severn estuary in western England, on the migratory path of a rare Siberian wild goose. He established at his home the world’s largest wildfowl sanctuary. It was at Slimbridge that he helped save the Hawaiian goose from extinction by breeding more than 100 and returning them to Hawaii where the numbers had dropped below 50 pairs. His expeditions took him to the Arctic and the Galapagos Islands. A hunter in his youth, Sir Peter sold his guns and became a conservationist after seeing a shot

goose die a lingering death. When the Italian actress, Gina Lollobrigida, arrived in London with seven fur coats in 1970, Sir Peter was enraged. “A leopard skin looks better on a leopard,” he said. As a sportsman, he won a bronze medal for Britain in the 1936 Olympics for sailing, was helmsman in the 1964

America’s Cup and was Britain’s National Gliding Champion in 1963. He campaigned ener-

getically against whalehunting and in 1984 returned an Icelandic conservation award in protest against the country’s whaling practices. Peter Markham Scott was born in London on September 14, 1909. He inherited his artistic talent from his sculptor mother, Kathleen Brunce Scott. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he began painting seriously and switched from a degree in natural sciences to study art and architecture. He married a writer, Elizabeth Jane Howard, in 1942, and had a daughter. He divorced in 1951 and later married Philippa Talbot-Ponsonby. The couple had a daughter and a son. t In spite of a heart attack in 1984, Sir Peter remained active in his later life, swimming 40 lengths daily in his heated pool.

In February this year, he was named Conservationist of the Year by the United States magazine, “World Wildlife News.” He once said that he strove to live by what he called his Hundred Years rule — devoting your highest attention to things which would make-life a little better in 100 years time. <

“I am without question the luckiest, and I believe, the happiest man I know,” he said. 3