Jack Vincent

Jack Vincent ( born March 6, 1904 in London, † July 3, 1999 in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu -Natal, South Africa) was a British ornithologist.

Life and work

At the age of 21 years, Vincent moved to South Africa, where he worked on two farms in the Richmond district of Natal. In the 1920s he returned to England and got a job as a bird collector in the British Museum. From the late 1920s until the early 1930s, he accompanied the ornithologists Hubert Lynes on several expeditions to East, Central and South Africa. In 1934 he married in Cape Town, the Scot Mary Russell. 1937 Vincent bought a farm in the Mooi River district of Natal.

During the Second World War, Jack Vincent served as a colonel in the Natal Carbineers in East and North Africa, where he was awarded the Order Member of the British Empire for his services. In 1942 he was transferred to the British Army to Haifa in Palestine.

1949 Vincent Corresponding Member of the American Ornithologists ' Union and leader of the Natal Parks, Game and Fish Preservation Board was ( briefly: Natal Parks Board ), which should play an important role in saving the white rhino in KwaZulu -Natal later. From the late 1940s until the early 1950s, he was editor of "The Ostrich ", the journal of the South African Ornithological Society.

From 1963 to 1967 he participated in conservation projects of the International Council for Bird Preservation (now BirdLife International) part. For this work he was awarded the gold medal of the WWF. In 1967, he again worked for the Natal Parks Board, before he retired in 1974. Died in 1989 his wife Mary and Jack moved to Pietermaritzburg. 1993 awarded him the University of KwaZulu -Natal honorary doctorate. Vincent died in 1999 at the age of 95 years.

Works (selection)

• Checklist of the Birds of South Africa. In 1952.
• The Red Book: Wildlife in Danger. In 1969.
• Web of Experience: An Autobiography. In 1989.