Ian Moore

b.1923. Ecologist and conservationist, author of Dragonflies (1966 with Philip S. Corbet and Cynthia Longfield) and Hedges (1974 with E Pollard and M.D. Hooper). Grew up in rural East Sussex, son of a doctor, and educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, completing his degree after the war. Wartime service in the Royal Artillery, where wounded and taken prisoner in 1944.

From 1948-53, lecturer in zoology at Bristol University, where pioneering study of dragonfly territorial behaviour and ecology won him a PhD. Conservancy's regional officer in SW England, where carried out important studies of Dorset heaths and the buzzard. From 1960-74 Head of Toxic Chemicals and Wildlife Division ad Monks Wood, where, as a sideline, he also studied hedges with his colleagues Hooper and Pollard. From 1974 to retirement in 1983 was the NCC's chief advisory officer, specialising in agriculture. During this time he founded and chaired the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Groups (FWAG). Visiting Professor of Environmental Studies at Wye College, Kent. Founded and chaired Odonata Specialist Group of the IUCN, producing a world plan for dragonfly conservation.

His 'professional sutobiography' The Bird of Time (1987) was also an honest appraisal of the realities and difficulties of nature conservation in a time of rapid technological change. Oaks, dragonflies and people (2001) was based on his experiences of looking after a back garden nature reserve at home in Swavesey, Cambs, including perhaps the world's most famous dragonfly pons. One of the most influential figures in nature conservation over half a century. Graceful, courteous and wise.