Rennie Montague Bere CMG (28 November 1907 in

Bere Regis Bere Regis () is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England, situated north-west of Wareham. In the 2011 census the civil parish had a population of 1,745. The village has one shop, a family-owned cheese barn, a post office, and two pubs ...

, Dorset – 23 March 1991 in

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

, Devon) was a British mountaineer, naturalist and nature conservationist. In 1928 he became a member of the

Alpine Club The first alpine club, the Alpine Club, based in the United Kingdom, was founded in London in 1857 as a gentlemen's club. It was once described as: :"a club of English gentlemen devoted to mountaineering, first of all in the Alps, members of which ...

, London. In 1957 he became a

Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III. It is named in honou ...

Biography

Bere was the son of a clergyman. He was educated at

Marlborough College Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Independent school (United Kingdom), independent boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. Founded in 1843 for the sons of Church ...

and in 1926 entered Selwyn College, Cambridge. In 1930 he joined the British

Colonial Service The Colonial Service, also known as His/Her Majesty's Colonial Service and replaced in 1954 by Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service (HMOCS), was the British government service that administered most of Britain's overseas possessions, under the aut ...

, went to Uganda and worked as District Commissioner and later as Provincial Commissioner for the northern Province. During his thirty years in Uganda he accomplished many feats of mountaineering and added to knowledge of the mountains particularly of the Ruwenzori range. Bere researched many inselbergs, the Imatong range on the Sudanese border and the Virunga volcano. In 1955 he became Director and Chief Ranger of the Uganda National Parks. In 1960 he left Uganda with his wife Anne Maree, whom he had married in Uganda in 1936, and lived in retirement at West Cottage near

Bude Bude (; kw, Porthbud) is a seaside town in north east Cornwall, England, in the civil parish of Bude-Stratton and at the mouth of the River Neet (also known locally as the River Strat). It was sometimes formerly known as Bude Haven.''Cornish ...

in Cornwall. Bere published about a dozen books including ''The Way to the Mountains of the Moon'' (1966), ''Antelopes'' (1970), ''The Nature Of Cornwall'' (1982) and his autobiography ''A Cuckoo's Parting Cry: a personal account of life and work in Uganda between 1930 and 1960'' (1990).

Selected works

*''The Wild Mammals of Uganda and Neighbouring Regions of East Africa'', 1961 *''The Way to the Mountains of the Moon'', 1966 *''Wild Animals in an African National Park'', 1966 *''The African Elephant'', 1966 (German translation: ''Die Welt der Tiere: Der Afrikanische Elefant'', translated by Odo Walther, 1976) *''Birds in an African National Park'', 1969 *''Antelopes'' (German translation: ''Die Welt der Tiere: Antilopen'', translated by Theodor Haltenorth), 1970 *''Wildlife in Cornwall: a naturalist’s view of the southwestern peninsula'', 1970 *''Crocodile’s Eggs for Supper, and other Animal Tales from Northern Uganda'', 1973 *''Mammals of East and Central Africa'', 1975 *''The Story of Bude Haven'', 1977 *''The Book of Bude and Stratton'', 1980 *''The Nature of Cornwall: the wildlife and ecology of the county'', 1982 *''A Cuckoo’s Parting Cry: a personal account of life and work in Uganda between 1930 and 1960'', 1990

Sources

*A. D. M. Cox: "In Memoriam Rennie Montague Bere", in: ''Alpine Journal''; 1992, pp. 325–326 *Geoff Milburn: "Obituary Rennie Montague Bere", in: ''The Climbers Club Journal''; 1991 Volume XXI No. 1 (New Series), pp. 148–151 *Ernest Kay: ''The International Authors and Writers Who's Who'', International Biographical Centre, 1989 ; p. 65

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bere, Rennie Montague British naturalists British mountain climbers 1907 births 1991 deaths 20th-century naturalists People educated at Marlborough College Alumni of Selwyn College, Cambridge Colonial Service officers Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George People from Dorset