THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB
DEPARTMENT OF LIFE SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON
ROMFORD ROAD, STRATFORD,
LONDON, EI5 4LZ
NEWSLETTER NO. 21 May 1997
THE PRESIDENT'S BIT...
Those who attended the AGM on 15th March will already know that the members present
saw fit to elect me as the Essex Field Club's President for 1997/98. For those who do not
know me, a few words of introduction seem appropriate.
My main "claim to fame", I suppose, is that I was in charge of the Biology Section at the
Passmore Edwards Museum from 1979 until the London Borough of Newham saw fit to
abolish natural history and make me redundant on Xmas eve 1994. During the time I was
at the museum I was responsible not only for the collections, but also for the running of
the East Ham Nature Reserve and for biological recording in the west of the county.
I came to Essex from my native Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire in 1970. As a
penniless student with an interest in natural history I regret that I found the Essex Field
Club an unattractive proposition. Indoor meetings in Chelmsford and field trips to the
coast had little appeal to a skint young man with no wheels. I found the London Natural
Histoiy Society a far more accommodating body and joined soon after arrival here in
"The South". At the time, my main interest was in birds. I qualified as a bird ringer and
began work on a project studying the birds in the urban area of southern Epping Forest,
around Wanstead and Manor Park. I still retain a particular interest in urban wildlife,
though in recent years I was converted from birds to insects! 1 have written a number of
papers on urban wildlife and once represented Britain at an urban ecology conference in
Poland - though my lasting memory of that trip was the bottled beer at only 5000 Zlotti
(20 pence) per half litre and finding Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon in a Warsaw
shop for 25,000 Zlotti (exactly £1).
My interest in the Essex Field Club came much later, and was largely the result of both
acquiring a car and becoming somewhat more financially solvent. I observe, however,
that indoor meetings are still held in Chelmsford and, though I agree this is a central
venue and that most people now do have transport, 1 wonder what members views are on
this. After all, the attendance at meetings is pretty poor, though in this respect we are no
different from almost every other natural histoiy society in Britain.
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 21, May 1997