Nigel Degge Wilmot Sitwell (23 August 1935 in

Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan borough on the south coast of Hampshire, South East England. At the 2011 Census, its population was 82,662. Gosport is situated on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, opposite t ...

, Hampshire – 2017) was an English conservationist, writer, editor and businessman specialising in wildlife and travel. He is noted for his travels in nearly 100 countries, including Antarctica, Tibet, East Africa and East Asia. In addition he edited and published the WWF magazine series ''Wildlife'' for 17 years.

Career

After finishing

Sherborne School (God and My Right) , established = 705 by Aldhelm, re-founded by King Edward VI 1550 , closed = , type = Public school Independent, boarding school , religion = Church of England , president = , chair_label = Chairman of the governors , ...

in 1953 Sitwell went to Canada where he worked as

financial journalist Business journalism is the part of journalism that tracks, records, analyzes and interprets the business, economic and financial activities and changes that take place in societies. Topics widely cover the entire purview of all commercial acti ...

for

The Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

from 1958 to 1961. In 1964, he joined the editorial board of the ailing WWF magazine ''Animals'' which was founded in 1963. Subsequently, he bought that magazine. From January 1967 it was published monthly. In May 1974, the title was changed into ''Wildlife'' to present a wider range of featured topics.Key moments in the history of BBC Wildlife Magazine
, discoverwildlife.com. Retrieved 6 April 2017. In 1983, this magazine was renamed into BBC Wildlife. By 2000, Sitwell started the new project ''Ocean Explorer'' where he published richly illustrated maps about several areas of the world like

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range ...

South Georgia South Georgia ( es, Isla San Pedro) is an island in the South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. Stretching in the east� ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

, South America,

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouzet ...

, the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

, the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands (Spanish: , , ) are an archipelago of volcanic islands. They are distributed on each side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, and are part of the Republic of Ecuador ...

, the

Mediterranean islands The following is a list of islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The two main island countries in the region are Malta and Cyprus, while other countries with islands in the Mediterranean Sea include Italy, France, Greece, Spain, Tunisia, Croatia, ...

, and

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

. These detailed travel maps are directed in particular to cruise ship passengers and include information about wildlife, landscapes, landmarks, and notable explorers. In collaboration with

Lars-Eric Lindblad Lars-Eric Lindblad (January 23, 1927 – July 8, 1994) was a Swedish- American entrepreneur and explorer, who pioneered tourism to many remote and exotic parts of the world. He led the first tourist expedition to Antarctica in 1966 in a chartered ...

he developed the Antarctica program for the cruise line ''

Orient Lines Orient Lines was a cruise line specialising in exotic destinations that was in operation 1993–2008. The brand was founded in 1993 by Gerry Herrod, and was sold to Norwegian Cruise Line in 1998. It ceased operations in March 2008 and was sold ...

'' in 1993 where he was expedition leader for 14 seasons on ships such as ''Professor Khromov'', ''

Alla Tarasova Alla Konstantinovna Tarasova (russian: А́лла Константи́новна Тара́сова; – 5 April 1973) was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actress and pedagogue. She was a leading actress of Konstantin Stanislavski's Moscow ...

'', ''Ocean Princess'', and ''

MS Marco Polo MS ''Marco Polo'' was a cruise ship originally built as ocean liner ''Aleksandr Pushkin'' in 1965 by Mathias-Thesen-Werft, East Germany for the Soviet Union's Baltic Shipping Company. After major alterations and additions, the ship sailed as ...

''. These cruises not only went to Antarctica but also to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the

Ross Sea The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica, between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land and within the Ross Embayment, and is the southernmost sea on Earth. It derives its name from the British explorer James Clark Ross who vi ...

. Sitwell was often on Galápagos. He first visited this islands in 1967 and travelled there for about fifty times. In 1995, he was among the founder trustees of the

Galapagos Conservation Trust The Galapagos Conservation Trust (GCT) is a British conservation charity (registered number 1043470) which focuses on saving animals at risk of extinction on the Galapagos Islands. It is a member of the Friends of Galapagos Organisations (also k ...

where he served as chairman from 1997 to 2006. He was succeeded by Richard Robinson. Sitwell served as Director of Information for WWF UK. In addition he was member of the Council of the

Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained the London Zoo, and since 1931 Whipsnade Park. History On 29 ...

and a long-time trustee of

Survival International Survival International is a human rights organisation formed in 1969, a London based charity that campaigns for the rights of indigenous and/or tribal peoples and uncontacted peoples. The organisation's campaigns generally focus on tribal peopl ...

where he was director of the charitable trust from 1996 to 1997. For his achievement in nature conservation he was awarded with the

Order of the Golden Ark The Most Excellent Order of the Golden Ark ( nl, Orde van de Gouden Ark) is a Dutch order of merit established in 1971 by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. It is awarded to people for major contributions to nature conservation. Although not ...

by HRH

Prince Bernhard , house = Lippe , father = Prince Bernhard of Lippe , mother = Armgard von Cramm , birth_date = , birth_name = Count Bernhard of Biesterfeld , birth_place = Jena, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Germany , death_date = ...

of the Netherlands. Sitwell was a member of the

UK Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest par ...

. He was candidate during the

West Sussex County Council elections West Sussex County Council in England is elected every four years. Council elections * 1997 West Sussex County Council election * 2001 West Sussex County Council election *2005 West Sussex County Council election (boundary changes reduced the numb ...

in the district

Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ci ...

South in 2005, 2009, and 2013.West Sussex County Council elections – 2013
andrewteale.me.uk. Retrieved 14 April 2017. He died at age 81 in 2017 from Alzheimer's disease.

Selected works

*Happy The Man. Episodes in an Exciting Life, 1967 (with Sir Peter Scott) *Animal Life '73: the World Conservation Yearbook, 1973 *An Artist in Africa, 1973 (with David Shepherd) *Wild Life Today: World Conservation Handbook, 1974 *Wildlife '74, the World Conservation Yearbook, 1974 *Wildlife '75, the World Conservation Yearbook, 1975 *Wild Life Now, 1976 *Wildlife '76, the World Conservation Yearbook, 1976 *The World of Wild Life, 1977 *Wildlife '77, the World Conservation Yearbook, 1977 *Wildlife '78, the World Conservation Yearbook, 1978 *Wildlife '79, 1979 *Wildlife '80, the World Conservation Yearbook, 1980 *A Field Guide to the British Countryside, 1981 *Wildlife '81, the World Conservation Yearbook, 1981 *Wildlife & nature photography, 1981 *Wildlife '82/ '83, 1983 *Wildlife '84, the World Conservation Yearbook, 1984 *Shell Guide to Britain's Threatened Wild Life, 1984 *Safari: The East African Diaries of a Wildlife Photographer, 1984 *Antarctic Primer, 1997 *Antarctica: the Reader, 2006 *Galapagos: A Guide to the Animals and Plants, 2011

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sitwell, Nigel 1935 births 2017 deaths English explorers English writers English conservationists People educated at Sherborne School Explorers of Antarctica Tourism in Antarctica People from Gosport