Leslie Gilbert Pine was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 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:...

, lecturer

Lecturer

Lecturer is an academic rank. In the United Kingdom, lecturer is a position at a university or similar institution, often held by academics in their early career stages, who lead research groups and supervise research students, as well as teach...

, and researcher in the areas of genealogy

Genealogy

Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...

, nobility

Nobility

Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...

, history, heraldry

Heraldry

Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...

 and animal welfare

Animal welfare

Animal welfare is the physical and psychological well-being of animals.The term animal welfare can also mean human concern for animal welfare or a position in a debate on animal ethics and animal rights...

. He was born in 1907 in Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

, Avon County

Avon (county)

Avon was, from 1974 to 1996, a non-metropolitan and ceremonial county in the west of England.The county was named after the River Avon, which runs through the area. It was formed from parts of the historic counties of Gloucestershire and Somerset, together with the City of Bristol...

, England

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...

 and died in Bury St. Edmunds

Bury St. Edmunds

Bury St Edmunds is a market town in the county of Suffolk, England, and formerly the county town of West Suffolk. It is the main town in the borough of St Edmundsbury and known for the ruined abbey near the town centre...

, Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

 in 1987. He was the son of Lilian Grace Beswetherick and Henry Moorshead Pine (a tea merchant).

From 1935 to 1940 he served as an assistant editor

Editing

Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...

 at Burke's Peerage Ltd. During 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...

 he was a member of the Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

, serving in North Africa

North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, and India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

; he retired with the rank of Squadron Leader. After the war and until 1960, he was Burke's executive director. Pine edited Burke's Peerage, 1949-1959; Burke's Landed Gentry (of Great Britain), 1952; Burke's Landed Gentry (of Ireland), 1958; and, Burke's Distinguished Families of America, 1939, 1947. He also edited The International Year Book and Statesmen's Who's Who, 1953-1960; Author's and Writer's Who's Who, 1948, 1960; Who's Who in Music, 1949; and, Who's Who in the Free Churches, 1951.

A graduate of London University, he became a Barrister-at-Law, Inner Temple, in 1953. Pine was a member of the International Institute of Genealogy and Heraldry, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, a Fellow of the Ancient Monuments Society, a Life Fellow of the Institute of Journalists, a Freeman of the City of London

City of London

The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

, and a Liveryman of the Glaziers' Company.

He was managing editor of a British hunting magazine, Shooting Times

Shooting Times

Shooting Times and Country Magazine, more commonly known as the Shooting Times, is a British shooting and firearms magazine, published by IPC Media. The magazine also features articles on hunting, fishing, deer stalking, gamekeeping, gundogs and wildlife...

, from 1960 to 1964. He later authored an important book highly critical of sport hunting, After Their Blood, in which he wrote: "It is our duty as men and women of God’s redeemed creation to try not to increase the suffering of the world, but to lessen it. To get rid of bloodsports will be a great step toward this end."

Works

His books include:

• Trace Your Ancestors, Evans (1953)
• They Came With The Conqueror: A Study Of The Modern Descendants Of The Normans (1954)
• Heraldry and Genealogy: Teach Yourself (1957)
• The Twilight Of Monarchy (1958)
• Orders of Chivarly and Decorations of Honour of the World (1960)
• Ramshackledom, A Critical Appraisal of the Establishment (1962)
• Heraldry, Ancestry And Titles: Questions And Answers (1965)
• The Story of Surnames (1965)
• The Story of Heraldry (1952, revised 1966)
• After Their Blood : a Survey of Blood Sports in Britain (1966)
• Tradition and Custom in Modern Britain (1967)
• Genealogist's Encyclopedia (1969)
• Story of Titles (1969)
• Princes of Wales (1970)
• International Heraldry (1970)
• Heraldry and Genealogy (1970)
• The Highland Clans (1972)
• The History of Hunting (1973)
• Sons of the Conqueror: Descendant of the Norman Dynasty (1973)
• The New Extinct Peerage, 1884-1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant & Suspended Peerages with Genealogies and Arms (1973)
• The Middle Sea: Short History of the Mediterranean (1973)
• American Origins (1980)
• A Dictionary of Mottoes (1983)
• A Dictionary of Nicknames (1984)
• Titles (1992)

Pine is also the primary contributor to the article "genealogy" in Encyclopedia Britannica.