John Morton Boyd

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

(31 January 1925 – 25 August 1998) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

and conservationist. He was a pioneer of

nature conservation in Scotland Natural history of Scotland concerns the flora, fauna and mycota of Scotland. Flora The flora of Scotland is an assemblage of native plant species including over 1,600 vascular plants, more than 1,500 lichens and nearly 1,000 bryophytes. The to ...

Life

Boyd was born in

Darvel Darvel ( sco, Dairvel, gd, Darbhail) is a small town in East Ayrshire, Scotland. It is at the eastern end of the Loudoun, Irvine Valley and is sometimes referred to as "The Lang Toon" ( en, the Long Town). The town's Latin motto, , means "No ...

Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...

, the son of Thomas Boyd, master builder and Jeanie Morton. He was educated at

Kilmarnock Academy Kilmarnock Academy (Scottish Gaelic: ''Acadamaidh Chille Mheàrnaig''), formerly Kilmarnock Burgh School, is a state-funded secondary school in Kilmarnock, Scotland, currently located on Sutherland Drive in the New Farm Loch area of the town. The ...

. He then attended the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

where he began a course in engineering before switching to zoology. As an undergraduate he studied

sand dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, fl ...

snail A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gastro ...

s on the island of

Tiree Tiree (; gd, Tiriodh, ) is the most westerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The low-lying island, southwest of Coll, has an area of and a population of around 650. The land is highly fertile, and crofting, alongside tourism, and ...

in the

Inner Hebrides The Inner Hebrides (; Scottish Gaelic: ''Na h-Eileanan a-staigh'', "the inner isles") is an archipelago off the west coast of mainland Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, whic ...

, subsequently undertaking a doctoral study on the

earthworm An earthworm is a terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. They exhibit a tube-within-a-tube body plan; they are externally segmented with corresponding internal segmentation; and they usually have setae on all segments. Th ...

s of the

machair A machair (; sometimes machar in English) is a fertile low-lying grassy plain found on part of the northwest coastlines of Ireland and Scotland, in particular the Outer Hebrides. The best examples are found on North and South Uist, Harris an ...

and further

ecological Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

research. Boyd was influenced by the writings of

Seton Gordon Seton Gordon CBE (1886–1977) was a Scottish naturalist, photographer and folklorist. Gordon began exploring the Highlands of Scotland as a boy, particularly the Cairngorms. He later became a world-famous naturalist, photographer and folklori ...

and

Frank Fraser Darling Sir Frank Fraser Darling FRSE (23 June 1903 – 22 October 1979) was an English ecologist, ornithologist, farmer, conservationist and author, who is strongly associated with the highlands and islands of Scotland. He gives his name to the Fraser ...

. He visited St Kilda and recognised the potential for research into its endemic fauna, including the

Soay sheep The Soay sheep is a breed of domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') descended from a population of feral sheep on the island of Soay in the St Kilda Archipelago, about from the Western Isles of Scotland. It is one of the Northern European short-t ...

, the

St Kilda wren The St Kilda wren (''Troglodytes troglodytes hirtensis'') is a small passerine bird in the wren family. It is a distinctive subspecies of the Eurasian wren endemic to the islands of the isolated St Kilda archipelago, in the Atlantic Ocean we ...

(a subspecies of the

Eurasian wren The Eurasian wren (''Troglodytes troglodytes'') or northern wren is a very small insectivorous bird, and the only member of the wren family Troglodytidae found in Eurasia and Africa (Maghreb). In Anglophone Europe, it is commonly known simply ...

), and the

St Kilda field mouse The St Kilda field mouse (''Apodemus sylvaticus hirtensis'') is a subspecies of the wood mouse that is endemic to the Scottish archipelago of St Kilda, the island west of Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides, and from mainland Scotland. Unique t ...

. He was also involved in research on the

grey seal The grey seal (''Halichoerus grypus'') is found on both shores of the North Atlantic Ocean. In Latin Halichoerus grypus means "hook-nosed sea pig". It is a large seal of the family Phocidae, which are commonly referred to as "true seals" or " ...

North Rona Rona ( gd, Rònaigh) is a remote, uninhabited Scottish island in the North Atlantic. Rona is often referred to as North Rona to distinguish it from South Rona (another small island, in the Inner Hebrides). It has an area of and a maximum elevat ...

. In 1971 Boyd became the Scottish Director of the

Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in 1951, The Natu ...

. He retired from the Conservancy in 1985, but continued to be active in conservation until his death, in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

in 1998. He married Winifred Rome in 1954. They had four sons and one, Sir Ian L. Boyd, is also a zoologist.

Bibliography

Books authored or coauthored by Boyd include: * 1960 – ''St Kilda Summer''. (With

Kenneth Williamson Kenneth Williamson FRSE MBOU (c. 1914 – 14 June 1977) was a British ornithologist who had a strong association with Scotland and with bird migration. Life Williamson was born in Bury, Lancashire. After briefly working as a journalist, Wil ...

). Hutchinson: London. * 1963 – ''A Mosaic of Islands''. (With Kenneth Williamson). Oliver & Boyd: London. * 1969 – ''The Highlands and Islands''. (New Naturalist no.6, 2nd edition, with Frank Fraser Darling). Collins: London. * 1979 – ''The Natural Environment of the Outer Hebrides''. (Editor).

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

Nature Conservancy Council The Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) was a United Kingdom government agency responsible for designating and managing National Nature Reserves and other nature conservation areas in Great Britain between 1973 and 1991 (it did not cover Northern ...

. * 1983 – ''Natural Environment of the Inner Hebrides''. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol 83. * 1986 – ''Fraser Darling's Islands''. Edinburgh University Press. * 1990 – ''The Hebrides. A natural history''. (New Naturalist series, with Ian L. Boyd). Collins: London. * 1992 – ''Fraser Darling In Africa: a rhino in the whistling thorn''. Edinburgh University Press. * 1996 – ''The Hebrides, a habitable land?'' (With Ian L. Boyd). Birlinn Ltd: Edinburgh. * 1999 – ''The Song of the Sandpiper: Memoir of a Scottish Naturalist''. Colin Baxter Photography Ltd: Grantown-on-Spey.

References

* Boyd, J. Morton. (1999). ''The Song of The Sandpiper: Memoir of a Scottish Naturalist''. Colin Baxter Photography Ltd: Grantown-on-Spey. * Maitland, Peter S. (1998). Royal Society of Edinburgh obituaries
John Morton Boyd
PDF downloaded 11 October 2007
Highland Naturalists Biographies – John Morton Boyd
Accessed 16 October 2007 1925 births 1998 deaths Alumni of the University of Glasgow Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Scottish ornithologists Scottish conservationists Scottish non-fiction writers People from East Ayrshire New Naturalist writers 20th-century British zoologists Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Scottish zoologists {{UK-ornithologist-stub