Nicholson , Max , 1904-2003 , ornithologist and conservationist

Nicholson's career was primarily in ornithology, natural conservation and questions of the relationship between development and the environment. These papers relate to his concern with issues of population. Carlos Paton Blacker and Nicholson were both founder members of the Simon Population Trust (founded 1957), but had already been in correspondence on matters relating to population and eugenics. Education at Sedbergh School, Cumbria 1920s; read history at Hertford College, Oxford; Birds In England, 1926, How Birds Live, 1927 1931 (As assistant editor of the Weekend Review) wrote supplement A National Plan For Britain; Created the British Trust for Ornithology, 1932; Songs Of Wild Birds (with gramaphone records). Produced with Ludwig Koch, 1937; helped found the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, 1938; Handbook Of British Birds (helped H F Witherby), 1938-1941; Joined the civil service heading the allocation of tonnage division at the Ministry of War Transport, 1940; In 1945 given a post in the Deputy Prime Minister's office, which led to him chairing the committee for the 1951 Festival of Britain; with Julian Huxley (the then Director General of the United Nations scientific and education organisation Unesco) involved in forming the Scientific International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) now the World Conservation Union, 1947-1948; setting up of the Nature Conservancy, 1949; contracted polio whilst leader of the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation survey team in Baluchistan, 1952; Director-general of the Nature Conservancy, 1952-1966; Instrumental in setting up the Council For Nature, 1958; helped found the Conservation Corps (the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers) and to develop the Wildlife Trusts Movement, 1959; with Peter Scott and others, helped create the World Wildlife Fund, 1961; convenor for conservation of the International Biological Programme, 1963-1974; wroteThe System, 1967; The Environmental Revolution, 1970; initiated what is now the Trust for Urban Ecology, 1977; The Birds of the Western Palearctic, 1977-1994; President of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, 1980-1985; Trustee of Earthwatch Europe, 1985-1993; created The New Renaissance Group, 1994. Also founder member and chairman of Common Ground International, Head of the world conservation section of the International Biological Programme. Had three sons: Piers, Tom (by first wife Mary Crawford) and David (by second wife Toni).