Frank Fraser Darling
Encyclopedia
Sir Frank Fraser Darling (born Frank Darling, 23 June 1903 - 22 October 1979) was an English
ecologist, ornithologist, farmer
, conservationist
and author
, who is strongly associated with the highlands and islands of Scotland
.
in northern England, the illegitimate son of Harriet Ellse Cowley Darling and Frank Moss. His mother was the daughter of a prosperous family from Sheffield
. Her family wanted the child to be fostered
and forgotten about. However, she would not cooperate and refused to part with Frank. His father, whom he never met, left for East Africa
around the time of his birth, and was killed in action on the Kenya
-Tanganyika
border in 1917.
. He then studied at the Midland Agricultural College (now part of the University of Nottingham
), at Sutton Bonington in the Borough of Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire
, and obtained diplomas in agriculture
and dairying
. Soon afterwards he married Marian Fraser ("Bobbie") and took the double-barrelled surname Fraser Darling, which, although he was divorced from Bobbie in 1948, he used to the end of his life.
While working as a Clean Milk Advisor in Buckinghamshire
, and longing for a research post in Scotland
, Fraser Darling heard about the work of the Institute of Animal Genetics at Edinburgh University, and in the early 1930s the Director, Francis Crew, offered him a place there to study for a PhD
. From 1929-1930 he was Director of the Commonwealth Bureau of Animal Breeding and Genetics, part of the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux
, at Edinburgh.
Living at Dundonnell and later in the Summer Isles
, Fraser Darling began the work that was to mark him as a naturalist-philosopher of original turn of mind and great intellectual drive. He described the social and breeding behaviour of the red deer
, gulls, and the grey seal
respectively, in the three academic works A Herd of Red Deer, Bird Flocks and the Breeding Cycle and A Naturalist on Rona.
The outbreak of World War II
put an end to Fraser Darling's hopes of undertaking further research on the grey seal, and being too old for active military service, he chose to farm rather than leave the west coast of Scotland for wartime civilian work. Between 1939 and 1943 Fraser Darling reclaimed derelict land to agricultural production on Tanera Mòr
in the Summer Isles. In 1942 the wartime Secretary of State for Scotland
, Thomas Johnston
, asked Fraser Darling if he would run an agricultural advisory programme in the crofting
areas of the Scottish Highlands
and Islands. He agreed, and for two years he travelled, taught and wrote articles that were later published in book form as Crofting Agriculture.
In 1949, Julian Huxley
, UNESCO
's first Director-General, invited Fraser Darling to be one of UNESCO's representatives at the United Nations
conference on conservation at Lake Success
on Long Island
. Huxley had been interested in Fraser Darling's studies on animal behaviour since the early 1940s, and the two had corresponded while Fraser Darling was living on Tanera Mor.
His 1969 BBC Reith Lectures (entitled Wilderness and Plenty) were an important contribution to the growing debate on man's responsibility for his natural environment
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
ecologist, ornithologist, farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
, conservationist
Conservation movement
The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....
and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, who is strongly associated with the highlands and islands of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
Early life
Frank Darling was born in the loft of a farm stable near ChesterfieldChesterfield
Chesterfield is a market town and a borough of Derbyshire, England. It lies north of Derby, on a confluence of the rivers Rother and Hipper. Its population is 70,260 , making it Derbyshire's largest town...
in northern England, the illegitimate son of Harriet Ellse Cowley Darling and Frank Moss. His mother was the daughter of a prosperous family from Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
. Her family wanted the child to be fostered
Foster care
Foster care is the term used for a system in which a minor who has been made a ward is placed in the private home of a state certified caregiver referred to as a "foster parent"....
and forgotten about. However, she would not cooperate and refused to part with Frank. His father, whom he never met, left for East Africa
East Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
around the time of his birth, and was killed in action on the Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
-Tanganyika
Tanganyika
Tanganyika , later formally the Republic of Tanganyika, was a sovereign state in East Africa from 1961 to 1964. It was situated between the Indian Ocean and the African Great Lakes of Lake Victoria, Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika...
border in 1917.
Career
After running away from school at the age of 15, Darling was sent to work on a farm in the PenninesPennines
The Pennines are a low-rising mountain range, separating the North West of England from Yorkshire and the North East.Often described as the "backbone of England", they form a more-or-less continuous range stretching from the Peak District in Derbyshire, around the northern and eastern edges of...
. He then studied at the Midland Agricultural College (now part of the University of Nottingham
University of Nottingham
The University of Nottingham is a public research university based in Nottingham, United Kingdom, with further campuses in Ningbo, China and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia...
), at Sutton Bonington in the Borough of Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...
, and obtained diplomas in agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
and dairying
Dairy farming
Dairy farming is a class of agricultural, or an animal husbandry, enterprise, for long-term production of milk, usually from dairy cows but also from goats and sheep, which may be either processed on-site or transported to a dairy factory for processing and eventual retail sale.Most dairy farms...
. Soon afterwards he married Marian Fraser ("Bobbie") and took the double-barrelled surname Fraser Darling, which, although he was divorced from Bobbie in 1948, he used to the end of his life.
While working as a Clean Milk Advisor in Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
, and longing for a research post in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, Fraser Darling heard about the work of the Institute of Animal Genetics at Edinburgh University, and in the early 1930s the Director, Francis Crew, offered him a place there to study for a PhD
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
. From 1929-1930 he was Director of the Commonwealth Bureau of Animal Breeding and Genetics, part of the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux
CAB International
CAB International is a not-for-profit inter-governmental organisation based in the United Kingdom....
, at Edinburgh.
Living at Dundonnell and later in the Summer Isles
Summer Isles
The Summer Isles are an archipelago lying in the mouth of Loch Broom, in the Highland region of Scotland.-Geography:The only inhabited isle, Tanera Mòr, is also the largest. It is home to an Atlantic salmon fish farm, some rental holiday homes, a café and a post office, which has operated its own...
, Fraser Darling began the work that was to mark him as a naturalist-philosopher of original turn of mind and great intellectual drive. He described the social and breeding behaviour of the red deer
Red Deer
The red deer is one of the largest deer species. Depending on taxonomy, the red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Asia Minor, parts of western Asia, and central Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains region between Morocco and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, being...
, gulls, and the grey seal
Grey Seal
The grey seal is found on both shores of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is a large seal of the family Phocidae or "true seals". It is the only species classified in the genus Halichoerus...
respectively, in the three academic works A Herd of Red Deer, Bird Flocks and the Breeding Cycle and A Naturalist on Rona.
The outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
put an end to Fraser Darling's hopes of undertaking further research on the grey seal, and being too old for active military service, he chose to farm rather than leave the west coast of Scotland for wartime civilian work. Between 1939 and 1943 Fraser Darling reclaimed derelict land to agricultural production on Tanera Mòr
Tanera Mòr
Tanera Mòr is an inhabited island in Loch Broom in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. It is the largest of the Summer Isles and the only inhabited island in that group...
in the Summer Isles. In 1942 the wartime Secretary of State for Scotland
Secretary of State for Scotland
The Secretary of State for Scotland is the principal minister of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Scotland. He heads the Scotland Office , a government department based in London and Edinburgh. The post was created soon after the Union of the Crowns, but was...
, Thomas Johnston
Thomas Johnston
Thomas "Tom" Johnston CH was a prominent Scottish socialist and politician of the early 20th century, a member of the Labour Party, a Member of Parliament and government minister – usually with Cabinet responsibility for Scottish affairs.-Red Clydesider:Johnston, the son of a middle-class...
, asked Fraser Darling if he would run an agricultural advisory programme in the crofting
Crofting
Crofting is a form of land tenure and small-scale food production unique to the Scottish Highlands, the Islands of Scotland, and formerly on the Isle of Man....
areas of the Scottish Highlands
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
and Islands. He agreed, and for two years he travelled, taught and wrote articles that were later published in book form as Crofting Agriculture.
In 1949, Julian Huxley
Julian Huxley
Sir Julian Sorell Huxley FRS was an English evolutionary biologist, humanist and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century evolutionary synthesis...
, UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
's first Director-General, invited Fraser Darling to be one of UNESCO's representatives at the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
conference on conservation at Lake Success
Lake Success, New York
Lake Success is a village in Nassau County, New York in the United States. The population was 2,934 at the 2010 census.Lake Success is in the Town of North Hempstead on northwest Long Island. Lake Success was the temporary home of the United Nations from 1946 to 1951, occupying the headquarters of...
on Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
. Huxley had been interested in Fraser Darling's studies on animal behaviour since the early 1940s, and the two had corresponded while Fraser Darling was living on Tanera Mor.
His 1969 BBC Reith Lectures (entitled Wilderness and Plenty) were an important contribution to the growing debate on man's responsibility for his natural environment
Natural environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....
.
Honours and awards
- 1933-1936: Awarded Barnard Medal
- 1934: Elected Fellow, Royal Society of EdinburghRoyal Society of EdinburghThe Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity, operating on a wholly independent and non-party-political basis and providing public benefit throughout Scotland...
- 1936-1939: Appointed Carnegie Research Fellow
- 1947: Awarded Mungo Park MedalMungo Park MedalThe Mungo Park Medal is awarded by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in recognition of outstanding contributions to geographical knowledge through exploration and/or research, and/or work of a practical nature of benefit to humanity in potentially hazardous physical and/or social...
, Royal Scottish Geographical SocietyRoyal Scottish Geographical SocietyThe Royal Scottish Geographical Society is a learned society founded in 1884 and based in Perth. The Society has a membership of 2500 and aims to advance the science of geography worldwide by supporting education, research, expeditions, through its journal , its newsletter and other publications... - 1970: Awarded Knighthood
- 1970-1973: Appointed member of the Royal CommissionRoyal CommissionIn Commonwealth realms and other monarchies a Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue. They have been held in various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia...
on Environmental Pollution - 1972: Awarded Centenary Medal, US National Park ServiceNational Park ServiceThe National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
- 1973: Created Commandeur, Order of the Golden ArkOrder of the Golden ArkThe Most Excellent Order of the Golden Ark was established by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands in 1971 as an order of merit. Although not awarded by, it is recognized by the government of the Netherlands as a legal order. It is awarded to people for major contributions to nature conservation...
(NetherlandsNetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
)
Selected bibliography
- 1932 - Colour Inheritance in Bull-terriers. (Chapter in book by T.W. HogarthThomas William HogarthThomas William Hogarth was an author, dog judge, dog breeder, genetics enthusiast and veterinary surgeon. He was an author of several books published in the 1930s about the Bull Terrier and breeding of Bull Terriers....
). - 1932 - The Physiological and Genetical Aspects of Sterility in Domesticated Animals.
- 1932 - Biology of the Fleece of the Scottish Mountain Blackface.
- 1937 - A Herd of Red Deer. A Study in Animal Behaviour. Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
. - 1938 - Bird Flocks and the Breeding Cycle: a contribution to the study of avian sociality. Cambridge University PressCambridge University PressCambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
. - 1938 - Wild Country. A Highland Naturalist's Notes and Pictures. Cambridge University Press.
- 1939 - The Seasons and the Farmer: a Book for Children. Cambridge University Press. (Illustrated by Charles TunnicliffeCharles TunnicliffeCharles Frederick Tunnicliffe was an internationally renowned naturalistic painter of British birds and other wildlife. He spent most of his working life on the Isle of Anglesey.-Life:...
). - 1939 - A Naturalist on Rona: essays of a biologist in isolation. Clarendon Press: Oxford.
- 1940 - Island Years. G. Bell and Sons.
- 1941 - The Seasons and the Fisherman. Cambridge University Press.
- 1942 - The Story of Scotland. CollinsHarperCollinsHarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
: London. - 1943 - Wildlife of Britain. Collins: London.
- 1943 - Island Farm. G. Bell and Sons.
- 1943 - The Care of Farm Animals.
- 1945 - Crofting Agriculture. Its Practice in the West Highlands and Islands. Oliver and Boyd: Edinburgh.
- 1947 - Natural History in the Highlands and Islands.
- 1949 - Sandy the Red Deer. OUP: London.
- 1953 - Alaska: An Ecological Reconnaissance. Ronald Press Company: New York.
- 1955 - West Highland Survey: An essay in human ecology.
- 1956 - Pelican in the Wilderness: a naturalist's odyssey in North America. Allen & Unwin: London.
- 1960 - An Ecological Renaissance of the Mara Plains in Kenya Colony. Wildlife Society.
- 1960 - Wild life in an African territory. (Study made for the Game and Tsetse Control Dept of Northern Rhodesia). Oxford University: London.
- 1966 - Future Environments of North America: Transformation of a Continent. (With John P. Milton). Natural History Press: New York.
- 1969 - The Highlands and Islands. (Revised edition of Natural History in the Highlands and Islands, with J. Morton BoydJohn Morton BoydDr John Morton Boyd CBE was a Scottish zoologist, writer and conservationist. He was a pioneer of nature conservation in Scotland....
). Collins: London. ISBN 0-00-631955-6 - 1969 - Impacts of Man on the Biosphere.
- 1970 - Wilderness And Plenty: the Reith Lectures 1969. BBCBBC BooksBBC Books is an imprint majority owned and managed by Random House. The minority shareholder is BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation...
. ISBN 0-563-09281-5 - 1971 - A Conversation on Population, Environment, and Human Well-Being. Conservation Foundation: Washington.