Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Gwen Bishop (1943–2022)

2022; Wiley; Volume: 165; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/ibi.13077

1474-919X

Steve Dudley,

Pasture and Agricultural Systems

Gwen Bishop (Gwen Bonham as she was known to ornithologists worldwide) passed away peacefully on the morning of 20 March 2022 after a short illness. Gwen was born on 22 November 1943 in Tring, Hertfordshire, the youngest daughter of Mr and Mrs Wilkins, an established local farming family. She attended Ashlyns Grammar School, Berkhamsted, where she displayed a firm dislike for formal teaching, thinking Latin and science in particular would have no place in the secretarial job that lay ahead of her. She left school at age 16 with two GCE O-levels. On leaving school Gwen worked for a small local engineering company – where she met her first husband, Mick Bonham – before joining the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) in April 1964 on its move from Oxford to Beech Grove in Tring, just a few hundred yards from her parents' small-holding. A general love of the countryside and an appreciation of natural history was awakened by working alongside such colleagues as Ken Williamson, Bob Spencer and Chris Mead. At the BTO, Gwen's secretarial and organizational skills soon came to the fore. Map drawing and typing copious manuscripts for Ken Williamson and minute-taking and servicing many BTO committees, including the Scientific Advisory Committee and the [first] Atlas Working Group. Gwen led the support team for the Population Section, helping to grid Common Birds Census plots, quickly gaining a good basic understanding of birds, and a growing interest in garden birds. In 1965 Gwen handled the administrative side of the first Common Birds Census Conference held at Pendley Manor, Tring (where she had played as a child). She assisted with the first BTO annual conference at Swanwick, Derbyshire, in 1965, taking over its organization in 1970 and ensuring that a warm smile greeted the many hundreds of conference-goers, a smile that masked a stomach-churning interior, concerned that all would go well – it invariably did. Gwen travelled countrywide with BTO staff to regional meetings, taking displays and manning the ever-popular BTO shop, and enjoying the hospitality of many BTO members. In June 1973 she became Membership Secretary, a position in which she revelled, receiving the warm appreciation of staff and members. Typical of Gwen, she assembled a merry band of helpers from family and friends to gather at weekends at Beech Grove to stuff envelopes with BTO News and Bird Study – such weekends would remain for different departments until the BTO's move from Beech Grove in 1991 and were as much social events as they were work. The family atmosphere of Beech Grove, where everyone was treated equally, proved the start of many long friendships. Gwen fondly recalled her early BTO days when everyone emptied their own wastebins, burned rubbish in the garden and worked in spartan conditions. In 1987, as the BTO began its search for a new home having outgrown Beech Grove, Gwen decided to take a well-earned break; but this was not to last long. Within a year, Gwen was ‘head-hunted’ by the British Ornithologists' Union (BOU) and offered the position of Administrative Secretary. She declined, as she did not want to travel to London, where the Union's office was then based at the Zoological Society of London. In order to secure Gwen's services, the BOU thought that if Gwen would not move to them, they would move to her. So it was that the then BOU President, David Snow, secured an office for the BOU at the Natural History Museums' Bird Group offices at The Rothschild Museum, Tring, where she started work for the Union in November 1987. Her first task, faced with a bare office and umpteen packing cases stuffed with papers, was to organize the BOU's new HQ. The BOU was a whole new experience. Working largely on her own, Gwen soon set about breathing fresh life into the administration of the BOU and into the Union as a whole. However, an unexpected consequence of her move to her new museum office would lead to her meeting her future husband, Iain Bishop. When Gwen arrived at the BOU there had been no formal Union conferences for some time. But that was soon to change. It was due to Gwen's amazing ability to organize and galvanize, helped by the new Chair of the BOU Meetings Committee, Chris Feare, that Gwen's first BOU conference on ‘Gulls and Terns’ miraculously took place in Liverpool in the autumn of 1988. This was despite the fact that the hotel booked for the event (not by Gwen) was run by an alcoholic and inhabited by his friends, so that many delegates were kept awake all night by their activities. However, the conference was a great success and it established a firm foundation for a string of highly successful, entertaining and hugely enjoyable BOU conferences organized by Gwen over the coming years. Whatever the adversity, nothing took Gwen away from her conference desk for long. Even after spending the night in an Aberdeen hospital following a car accident in which the car rolled several times, having her handbag stolen in Norwich, or caring for a delegate who had suffered a heart attack in Liverpool, Gwen continued unfazed; she had seen and done it all in the line of duty. Indeed, Gwen could cope with any demand thrown at her by conference delegates – emergency repairs to both people and clothes, complaints about food, rooms, the standard of lectures or the weather – all were greeted with her cheerful smile and usual willingness to help. She also had a knack of selecting reliable helpers – in particular her sister Stephanie Wells and her partner Iain Bishop – to help out at conferences, much to the BOU's benefit. Conferences were usually the place where most people got to see Gwen, so it was fortunate that she was able simultaneously to talk to one person, book in another and give yet another a cup of coffee, without missing a beat and always with her wonderful smile. But Gwen's role within the BOU extended far beyond conferences. She oversaw the despatch of all sales goods from the BOU Office, including an expanding BOU Checklist series. She attended, serviced and minuted all BOU Council and committee meetings, and as one would expect with any membership organization, running the membership side of the Union was a major function of the job. Because of the BOU's global membership, and the affection with which the Union's members held her, Gwen must surely be one of the most well-known ‘non-ornithologists’ within the ornithological community. Gwen was staunchly proud of the BOU, serving five Presidents – David Snow, Janet Kear, John Croxall, Ian Newton and Chris Perrins – tirelessly and with great industry, tact, diplomacy and good humour, and always with the interests and reputation of the BOU at heart. She always seemed to understand what members of Council, or those on the various committees, were trying to say, even if no one else did, and made everybody sound suitably wise in her impeccable minutes. She was incredibly efficient in coping with the multitude of demands involved in running the BOU and the myriad of tasks that were asked of her. Gwen was truly the hub of the Union's work, and she facilitated and undertook a substantial revolution in the conduct of the Union's affairs. By the mid-1990s, the workload of the BOU Office had greatly increased beyond a part-time role and looking to ‘wind down’ Gwen attempted to take early retirement. Council, knowing only too well her worth to the Union, was quick to appoint a new staff member on a full-time basis in order to relieve Gwen of much of the responsibility of the day-to-day running of the Union. In 1997 Steve Dudley was appointed as the Union's Administrator, but this only served to increase work for them both, so there was still no let up for the seemingly tireless Gwen. Steve's arrival did, however, take the pressure of responsibility from her shoulders and provided her with a daily work colleague with whom she clicked immediately, helping to renew her appetite for the increasing BOU activities and thankfully prolonging her stay at the Union by a further 6 years. Steve has always said that Gwen was the reason he took on his own job with the BOU – another reason for the Union to be grateful to her. Throughout her career, Gwen always kept things afloat with considerable aplomb and, in so doing, was thought of with deep affection by those in ornithology all around the world. Both the BTO and the BOU can count themselves lucky that they had such an energetic, engaging, hard-working, happy and fun person at the hub of their administration during the challenging development phases of both organizations. On her 60th birthday in 2003, Gwen retired from the BOU, having served the ornithological community so diligently for 40 years. She retired to the idyllic country setting of Eydon, in Northamptonshire, to the home she and Iain had moved to 2 years previously following Iain's retirement, and in preparation for her own. Eydon village life would be at the centre of Gwen's next, and final, chapter. Within just a short time, this new environment fuelled further her love of her garden, natural history and the local history of her new home. And being the personable and engaging couple that Gwen and Iain were, they not only made firm friends within Eydon, but Gwen was soon at the centre of village activities and became a much-loved member of the community. She would say that it was ‘the village’, as much as her close family and long-standing friends, that got her through the untimely passing of her beloved Iain. Gwen was to become secretary of Eydon's First Wednesday Club – booking the best and most interesting speakers from her vast contact list within ornithology and natural history. She was an active member and chauffeur of the Woodford History Group and the NEWTS – Near Eydon Wine Tasters and Slurpers. The NEWTS, like so many of the village groups, including the Eydon Players (the village amateur dramatics group), met at Gwen and Iain's house, where their fabulous garden overlooking the village cricket and sports field (for which she served as the unofficial Chief Security Officer) also served as a regular outdoor venue for many village activities, when her famous Dundee cake and delicious scones would be brought out come refreshment time. Typical of Gwen, she rarely turned down a request for help from within the village – Eydon Historical Research Group, Eydon Ladies Group, the Village Hall, and Sports Field cricket matches and fundraisers could all rely on Gwen and Iain's support – and Gwen would often be the last to leave, making sure that every cup and saucer had been washed and put away. Despite her 40 years working within ornithology, Gwen always insisted that she knew nothing about birds, a ludicrous and typically modest statement given her quiet enjoyment of one of the best bird tables in the business, just outside her living room window, in the Eydon garden which gave both her and Iain so much joy in their retirement. Gardening and gardens were central to her enjoyment of retirement. A keen gardener herself and a member of the Moreton Pinkney Garden Club with whom she enjoyed their gardening talk evening and visits to local gardens. Gwen was sporty and interested in many sports. In her younger days she was an accomplished badminton player and latterly she kept herself fit with thrice-weekly aquaerobics classes. In the 1970s and 1980s she helped with the catering and social functions for Tring Town Football Club. She had a deep love of cricket, resulting in her being appointed scorer for the BTO cricket team (and those grudge matches against the RSPB for the ‘Ashes’ – a cup containing burnt copies of BTO News and Birds magazine). Her involvement in BTO social activities like this provided the bedrock of the ‘family’ atmosphere that permeated through Beech Grove. She regularly spent the Badminton Horse Trials with her close friends Clem Fisher and Mary Muller and come the Sunday evenings of an exhausting BOU annual conference weekend, you would find her with husband Iain and Steve Dudley winding down while watching the final day of the Masters golf. In 2004 Gwen was awarded the BOU's Union Medal for services to the BOU and to ornithology. Our community, and her village community of Eydon, have much to thank Gwen for, and both communities will long remember her warm smile and never-failing can-do spirit that sat at the centre of our respective worlds for so many years. I have drawn heavily on Gwen's 2004 Union Medal citation for this obituary but I am deeply grateful to Tim Davis and Richard Collins for their input.