Sir Richard Roy Maconachie,

KBE KBE may refer to: * Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, post-nominal letters * Knowledge-based engineering Knowledge-based engineering (KBE) is the application of knowledge-based systems technology to the domain o ...

, CIE (1885 - 18 January 1962) was an English civil servant in India, naturalist and

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

employee. He studied at

Tonbridge School (God Giveth the Increase) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = , president = , head_label ...

in Kent, England and

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the univer ...

before joining the Indian Civil Service. In 1923, he played billiards with

Amanullah Khan Ghazi Amanullah Khan (Pashto and Dari: ; 1 June 1892 – 25 April 1960) was the sovereign of Afghanistan from 1919, first as Emir and after 1926 as King, until his abdication in 1929. After the end of the Third Anglo-Afghan War in August 1919, ...

, then the Emir of Afghanistan. He was British Minister in

Kabul, Afghanistan Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

from 1929 to 1935. During his time in Afghanistan, Maconachie assembled a collection of native birds that he later presented to the

Natural History Museum at Tring The Natural History Museum at Tring was the private museum of Lionel Walter, 2nd Baron Rothschild; today it is under the control of the Natural History Museum, London. It houses one of the finest collections of stuffed mammals, birds, reptiles ...

in Tring, England (BMNH 1935-12-28). These bird skins became the basis of ornithologist Hugh Whistler's paper on the birds of Afghanistan in the Journal of the

Bombay Natural History Society The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), founded on 15 September 1883, is one of the largest non-governmental organisations in India engaged in conservation and biodiversity research. It supports many research efforts through grants and publi ...

in 1944–45. In 1936, he succeeded Charles Siepmann as head of Talks at the BBC. It was widely considered a "swing to the right".Asa Briggs: ''The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom – Volume II: The Golden Age of Wireless'', Oxford: Oxford University Press 1995, p. 138.
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Offices held

Literature

* Warr, F. E.: ''Manuscripts and Drawings in the ornithology and Rothschild libraries of The Natural History Museum at Tring'', BOC 1996.

References

English naturalists 1962 deaths 1885 births Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Afghanistan English civil servants English ornithologists People educated at Tonbridge School Alumni of University College, Oxford Indian Civil Service (British India) officers 20th-century British zoologists 20th-century naturalists Members of the Bombay Natural History Society British people in colonial India {{UK-ornithologist-stub