Conservation pioneer

Throughout his life, the most likely place to find Charles Waterton (1782–1865) was up a tree. A committed nature lover, he turned his family home – Walton Hall, near Wakefield – into a sanctuary for wildlife, establishing the world’s first nature reserve. In his broad Yorkshire accent, dressed in rags, he would happily talk about the 123 species of birds living there. As the naturalist and author Gerald Durrell said of him,