William Moreton Condry

William Moreton Condry
Born(1918-03-01)1 March 1918
Birmingham, England
Died30 May 1998(1998-05-30) (aged 80)
Morriston Hospital, Swansea, Wales
NationalityEnglish
Other namesBill Condry
OccupationNaturalist
Known forFirst warden at Ynys-hir

William Moreton Condry MA, MSc (1 March 1918 – 30 May 1998),[1] was a naturalist who was born in Birmingham, England.[2][3]

He earned degrees from the University of Birmingham, in French, from the University of London, in Latin, and from Aberystwyth University, in history.[2]

Like his parents, he was a pacifist, and, being a conscientious objector worked as a forester in Herefordshire during World War II.[2] He married a woman called Penny in 1946.[2] The next year the West Wales Field Society (later the Dyfed Wildlife Trust) appointed him as their warden for Mid Wales, a post he held until 1956. He also edited their journal, Field Notes.[2]

He was warden at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds's Ynys-hir reserve from its inception in 1969, until his in 1982, he and Penny having lived at Ynys Edwin cottage there since 1959 at the invitation of Hugh Mappin, the owner of the estate.[4] Condry was one of the main forces in the preservation of the red kite in Wales. He wrote many guides and nature books, including two volumes in Collins' New Naturalist series, Snowdonia National Park (1966) and The Natural History of Wales (1984). Pathway to the Wild (1975) and Wildlife My Life (1995) are autobiographical.[2]

He contributed, fortnightly, to The Guardian's Country Diary column for over forty years,[5] and appeared on several BBC Radio programmes.[6]

He received an honorary MSc from the University of Wales in 1980, and held the position of Vice-President of the West Wales Naturalists' Trust from 1982.[4]

He died from kidney failure on 30 May 1998, at Morriston Hospital.[3] Following cremation at Aberystwyth, his ashes were scattered on Cadair Idris.[3] The William Condry Memorial Lecture is held annually in his honour,[5] and a hide at Ynys-hir is named after him.[1]

  1. ^ a b Plaque commemorating Condry's lifetime contribution in the Bill Condry hide at Ynys-hir.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Chater, A. O. (1999). "William Moreton Condry (1918–1998)" (PDF). Watsonia. 22: 293.
  3. ^ a b c Fuller, Christopher; Chater, Arthur. "Condry, William Moreton". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  4. ^ a b "William Moreton Condry". National Federation of Women's Institutes. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  5. ^ a b "The Condry Lectures – About". Archived from the original on 11 August 2013. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  6. ^ "Search Results – BBC Genome". BBC. Retrieved 29 May 2016.