Harry Forbes Witherby

Harry was the second surviving son of Henry Forbes Witherby (1836–1907) of Holmehurst, Burley, Hants, the owner of the legal and maritime stationer Witherby and Co., employing 169 men who retired from the family business in 1899 to focus on his interests in painting and ornithology, leaving it to be run by his sons.{{Cite web|url=http://witherbypublishinggroup.com/Witherby-History|title=Witherby Publishing Group > Witherby History|access-date=23 December 2019|archive-date=14 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220314145247/http://witherbypublishinggroup.com/Witherby-History|url-status=dead}}A Country House or a House in the Country? A study of country houses in the New Forest and their residents, c. 1851 to c. 1923, Catherine E. M. Glover, University of Winchester, 2012, p. 205 After leaving school Witherby entered his old family publishing firm of Witherby, from which he retired in 1936, but resumed work again after the outbreak of the second world war. The family firm of H F and G Witherby, originally printers, began to publish bird books early in the 20th century. From an early age Witherby devoted himself to the study of ornithology, travelling extensively, including visits to Iran, the Kola Peninsula, and the White Nile. He described the latter in his book Bird Hunting on the White Nile (1902).{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/birdhuntingonwhi00withrich/page/n9/mode/2up|title=Bird Hunting on the White Nile|author=Witherby, Harry F.|postscript=; 117 pages; illustrated|location=London|publisher=The Office of "Knowledge"|date=15 May 1902}}{{cite journal|author=L., R.|title=review of Bird Hunting on the White Nile by H. F. Witherby|journal=Nature|volume=66|page=52|year=1902|doi=10.1038/066052a0}} He married Lilian Gillson in 1904. Lilian joined him on his travels and even learnt to skin birds on their honeymoon. They had two sons and three daughters.{{cite journal|last=Tucker|first=B. W.|title=Harry Forbes Witherby: A biographical sketch|journal=British Birds|volume=37|issue=9|pages=162–174|url=https://britishbirds.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/article_files/V37/V37_N09/V37_N09_P162_174_OB035.pdf|access-date=17 April 2016|archive-date=14 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814173957/https://britishbirds.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/article_files/V37/V37_N09/V37_N09_P162_174_OB035.pdf|url-status=dead}}

He started one of the world's first two bird ringing schemes in 1909 (they merged in the late 1930s), transferring responsibility, in 1937, to the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), who continue to run it.Bird Study Vol 16 March 1969 no.1, AL Thomson, text of first BTO Witherby Lecture Witherby was Hon Secretary and Treasurer (1904–14),{{cite book|title=Who Was Who|publisher=OUP}} and Chairman (1924–27) of the British Ornithologists' Club (1924–1927) and President of the Council of the British Ornithologists' Union (BOU) (1933–1938). In 1933 he was one of eleven people,{{efn|The letter was signed: {{Flatlist|

• Desborough
• Hugh S. Gladstone
• Grey of Fallodon
• Julian S. Huxley (Chancellor of Oxford University)
• T. G Longstaff
• Percy R. Lowe
• P. Chalmers Mitchell
• Rothschild
• Scone M.P. (Chairman, British Trust for Ornithology)
• E. L. Turner
• H. F. Witherby (President, British Ornithologists' Union)

}}}} involved in the appeal that led to the foundation of the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), an organisation for the study of birds in the British Isles.,{{cite news |title=Observers of Birds |url=https://www.bto.org/sites/default/files/u38/downloads/home-news/2013-06/bto-letter-the-times-July-1-1933.pdf |work=The Times |date=1 July 1933}} becoming a founding member and early vice-chairman. The BTO survived through his financial generosity, not least in donating the proceeds of the sale of his extensive collection of stuffed birds to the British Museum - this is now at the Natural History Museum, Tring.

Witherby's crowning glory was The Handbook of British Birds (1938–1941). Spanning five volumes, it was reprinted a number of times, the later editions having a few pages devoted to corrections and additions to previous editions, but few of these are of great significance and the main text was left untouched. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union in 1928 and was awarded the Godman-Salvin Medal by the BOU in 1937. Witherby's lark (Alaemon hamertoni) was named for him, in 1905, but is now more commonly known as the lesser hoopoe-lark. Two other bird sub-species have been named after him:Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names by James A Jobling, 1991 OUP Emberiza schoeniclus witherbyi (common reed bunting) and Erithacus rubecula witherbyi (European robin).

During World War I he was a lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve. He was mentioned in dispatches and was awarded the Military MBE for his service as an intelligence officer in Dunkirk.London Gazette 8th supplement, 23 May 1919

• Witherby Memorial Lecture

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• {{cite journal|last1=Thomson|first1=A. Landsborough|author-link=Arthur Landsborough Thomson|title=Harry Forbes Witherby: A Biographical Sketch|journal=Ibis|date=1944|volume=86|issue=2|pages=208–222|doi=10.1111/j.1474-919X.1944.tb03878.x}}
• Mullens and Swann - [https://books.google.com/books?id=wcAyAQAAMAAJ A Bibliography of British Ornithology] (1917)

• {{Internet Archive author|sname=Harry Forbes Witherby}}

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Category:1873 births

Category:1943 deaths

Category:British ornithologists

Category:Fellows of the Zoological Society of London

Category:British Trust for Ornithology people

Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire

Category:Presidents of the British Ornithologists' Union