David Bellamy, environmentalist

Dr David Bellamy, OBE (1933-2019) grew up in London but moved to Durham in 1960, where he lectured in the University’s Botany Department until 1980. He discovered his vocation on a field trip to Scotland after abandoning his dream of becoming a ballet dancer! The best teachers convey their enthusiasm for the subject and he certainly fell into that category and inspired not just his undergraduates but his large television audience too.

In 1967, the supertanker SS Torrey Canyon was grounded near the Scilly Isles and around 30 million gallons of oil were spilled. Bellamy had recently surveyed the Cornish coast so was interviewed by TV news, thus beginning his TV and radio career. His ebullient personality endeared him to the public and he went on to make documentaries and schools programmes, as well as many other appearances in which he waxed lyrical over the plantlife around us, including medicinal herbs.

He upset the globalists by calling their ‘climate change’ story “poppycock” in 2004, pointing out that the climate has always changed, sometimes drastically, without any assistance from humanity. He travelled the planet and was not averse to campaigning for actual environmental issues. The David Bellamy Conservation Award Scheme encourages well-managed holiday parks with wildlife areas.

(Top image: Ray Bird at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)