Interviewing and the History of British Ecology

Max Nicholson (www.maxnicholson.com)

I've been corresponding lately with the British Library regarding their Oral History of British Science project.  It sounds like an excellent endeavor, not least because it will include interviews with prominent British ecologists.  Should be a wonderful resource for historians.

I'm planning to contribute several hours of interviews to the project.  In May and June 1990 I interviewed Max Nicholson and E. Barton Worthington.  Both interviews were remarkable experiences, and I could not resist reliving them, listening again to the tapes before posting them to London.

(These interviews contributed to my Ecologists and Environmental Politics book; and since then I've kept up my interest in the history of British ecology and nature conservation, including this 2012 article in Environment and History.)

Between 1952 and 1965 Nicholson was Director General of the Nature Conservancy.  Under his leadership the Conservancy established a network of nature reserves, provided the first real support for nature conservation and ecological research in Britain, and gave conservation advice to the government.  But he was many other things as well, in and outside of government � altogether, one of the more remarkable individuals in twentieth century British history (see his entry in the DNB).  I've never understood why no one has written his biography.

Nicholson welcomed me to his home on Upper Cheyne Row, Chelsea.  He wore a dark three piece suit.  We sat for three hours in his living room, and for another hour for a follow-up interview a week later.  It was fascinating: Nicholson delivered paragraphs of thoughts and recollections about the formation of the Conservancy, his experiences working with Arthur Tansley, Charles Elton, and other ecologists, how Tansley "rammed" plans for the Conservancy through the British Ecological Society, how Nicholson � an expert in getting things done � moved the Conservancy proposal through the creaky machinery of British governance, and how ecologists revised their views regarding the distinction between "natural" and "artificial" landscapes � among many other topics.  After several paragraphs of organized exposition Nicholson would stop abruptly, and stare at a point somewhere above and beyond my head as he awaited my next question.

Worthington's career as an ecologist extended across decades of research and practice in Africa and Britain.  In the mid-1950s he returned to Britain to be the Conservancy's scientific director.  To see him I took a train out to Sussex; he met me at the station.  He lived in a 15^thcentury country house, with an inner court that had once been open to the sky.  Throughout a long afternoon he recounted his experiences as an ecologist since the 1920s, his work for the Conservancy, and his leadership of the International Biological Programme.  Throughout he was wonderfully congenial, joking that I was subjecting him to an "examination".  We broke at 4 pm, when, as "an old colonial hand" he served gin and tonics.

Listening again to these interviews again tonight I was struck by the patience both gentlemen showed this grad student.  Both were happy to talk for as long as I had questions, providing windows into vanished worlds, from prewar British ornithology to colonial Africa.

These experiences also reminded me of the value of studying very carefully their work before the interviews, to be able to probe for details, recall what they had said decades before, and explore inconsistencies (I heard again the nervousness in my voice as I posed presumptuous questions like: "That's really interesting, but when you wrote about this in the 1960s you seemed to suggest a different interpretation of events �").

These interview experiences are a big reason I enjoy studying the history of living people.