Noteworthy naturalist
Stuart Arnold Baldwin (1930-2021) Entrepreneur and book dealer
Stuart Baldwin was born in Witham, Essex on 2nd July 1930 and sadly died, aged 91, of cancer at his home in Witham, on 20th September 2021. He was not overly religious, and his civil funeral took place at Chelmsford Crematorium on 11th October 2021. Stuart had excellent interpersonal skills a very genial disposition and was always a delight to engage in conversation about his many areas of interest at many book fairs, conferences, exhibitions and reunions where he employed his excellent marketing skills and displayed and sold his second-hand books. Stuart had strong family Essex connections where he resided for many years. He had also lived in Oxfordshire and Surrey.
Stuart's paternal great grandfather was Barzillai Baldwin (1825-1872), a carman from Hempnall, Norfolk. His grandfather Richard Baldwin (1864-1946) lived in Colchester and was a draper and the secretary of a Friendly Society. Stuart was the second son of Clifford Richard Baldwin (1902-1992) of Colchester, a chemist, druggist and optician and Kathleeen Louise Arnold (1903-1989) of Lexden, Essex, a printer's reader who had married at Lexden in 1927. Stuart married twice, firstly in 1958 at Kingswood, Gloucestershire, to Shirley Olive Cook (1934-2005) and secondly in 1981 at Chelmsford, Essex to Pamela F. Ryder. Stuart had two daughters and a stepdaughter.
Stuart completed a five-year apprenticeship with Crompton Parkinson of Chelmsford, qualifying as an electrical engineer. His Army National Service was with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. After four years training in Bristol, he qualified as a pharmacist and spent seven years as a medical representative with Burroughs Wellcome in London. Following this he spent 15 years marketing computers for IBM. He was seconded to the London Enterprise Agency as the small firm's advisor for two years and for the next seventeen years he lectured part-time at London University on small business start-ups. In his spare time, he was also a collector of both fossils and books, and in 1959 set up successful businesses of his own making wonderful educational 3D fossil replicas using silicone rubber moulds which he had perfected, supplying specimens to the Open University and dealing in second-hand books, as well as running a small museum, with over 100,000 specimens of Palaeontology and Zoology at Fossil Hall, at Silver End near Witham, Essex. He started to downsize his business in 1988 and €˜retired' in 1995, selling his replica fossil manufacturing business and museum to the Open University, but retained his second-hand books which he continued to sell for many years, He started winding down his book-selling activities in 2001 and closed his bookshop, but continued buying and selling from his home.
Stuart was evacuated to Oxfordshire during the war and attended Witney Grammar School for five years. He held a Guinness World Record, as the €˜world's slowest student', taking 28 years, from 1970-1998, to complete his science degree with the Open University.
He was an avid fossil collector, with his close friend of 60 years Mike Durkin and held membership of many societies including The Geological Society, Geologists' Association, Geological Curators' Group, History of Geology Group, Linnean Society and the Royal Archaeological Institute. He was also interested in natural history and would prepare the skeletons of dead animals, which helped in understanding the anatomy of his fossils. In later years he took an interest in Egyptology and bee keeping. Stuart was an avid reader and Jack London was one of his favourite authors. He enjoyed playing golf.
Stuart wrote many articles and several books, including his self-published John Ray (1627-1705) Essex Naturalist: a summary of his life, work and scientific significance in 1986; Dinosaur Stamps of the World jointly authored with Beverley Halstead in 1991 and in 1999 A Beginners Guide to Second-hand Book-dealing.
Sources
Much of the material used in the preparation of the article came from online sources.