Abstract

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Harry Forbes Witherby. Harry was instrumental in initiating or driving forward many aspects of modern British ornithology, not least the creation of British Birds. This paper offers a brief outline of his life as well as his many contributions that still shape ornithology in Britain today.IntroductionThis year marks the 150th anniversary of Harry Forbes Witherby’s birth, an event that may mean little for many present-day ornithologists but whose lives, even so, are likely to have been unknowingly touched by his visionary work. Coincidentally, it also marks the 80th anniversary of Witherby’s death and the 90th anniversary of his significant contribution towards helping to establish the British Trust for Ornithology (see also Brit. Birds 116: 2–5). Those anniversaries provide an opportunity to commemorate the man by reflecting on the events that moulded his professional life, and which would eventually leave a rich workshop for future ornithologists. What is written here is by no means a full account of his achievements since, as a present-day member of the Witherby family agreed, he was not a self-proclaimer who left a well-marked trail for biographers to follow. He was a modest man, the likes of whom in ornithological circles we shall probably never see again. The early yearsHarry Forbes Witherby was born at Croydon, Greater London, on 7th October 1873, and was the fifth of seven children; four of his siblings died young, with the two other survivors being Theo (b. 1872) and George (b. 1878). Harry was born into a business-orientated family whose trade was rooted in stationery and, some time later, publishing. Witherby’s stationers (later to become Witherby & Son) was founded by Thomas Witherby in the 1740s, trading in Birchin Lane, near the Sword Blade House, City of London. On the death of Thomas, the business passed down through the generations until it was inherited by Harry’s father, Henry (1836–1907). Henry was a talented man, although it seems he was not as interested in printing and stationery as he was in writing religious texts and painting. He is buried in the churchyard of St John the Baptist, Burley, Hampshire, where his wife Emily (1838–1915) and brother George are also buried.