Sir Hugh Francis Ivo Elliott, 3rd Baronet, OBE (

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administra ...

10 March 1913 – 21 December 1989) was an eminent British conservationist,

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

and colonial civil servant. Born in India in 1913, the elder son of Sir Ivo Elliott, 2nd Baronet, he was educated at the

Dragon School ("Reach for the Sun") , established = 1877 , closed = , type = Preparatory day and boarding school and Pre-Prep school , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Emma Goldsm ...

in Oxford,

Eastbourne College Eastbourne College is a co-educational independent school in the British public school tradition, for day and boarding pupils aged 13–18, in the town of Eastbourne on the south coast of England. The College's headmaster is Tom Lawson. Ove ...

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 unive ...

where he was an active member of the Oxford Ornithological Society. From 1937 until 1950, he worked as a colonial civil servant, in

Tanganyika Territory Tanganyika was a colonial territory in East Africa which was administered by the United Kingdom in various guises from 1916 to 1961. It was initially administered under a military occupation regime. From 20 July 1922, it was formalised into a L ...

, where he was District Commissioner in Moshi. He was seconded in 1950 to

Tristan da Cunha Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcano, volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is the Extreme points of Earth, most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately from Cape Town, Sou ...

, where he served as the territory's first Administrator. In the

1953 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1953 for the United Kingdom were announced on 30 December 1952, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 1953. This was the first New Year Honours since the accession of Queen Elizabeth II. The ''Honours list'' i ...

he was appointed an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire 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 ...

(OBE) in recognition of his service to the community on Tristan da Cunha. He returned to Africa in 1953, working in the Ministry of Natural Resources in

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (; from ar, دَار السَّلَام, Dâr es-Selâm, lit=Abode of Peace) or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over s ...

; he was promoted to Permanent Secretary in 1958 and remained in that position until retirement in 1961 shortly before Independence. While at the Ministry he made an important contribution to the development of National Parks, in particular the creation of the

Serengeti National Park The Serengeti National Park is a large national park in northern Tanzania that stretches over . It is located entirely in eastern Mara Region and north east portion of Simiyu Region and contains over of virgin savanna. The park was established ...

and

Ngorongoro Conservation Area The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (, ) is a protected area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Ngorongoro District, west of Arusha City in Arusha Region, within the Crater Highlands geological area of northern Tanzania. The area is na ...

. In his spare time, he was an avid and serious birdwatcher, both in Tanganyika, collecting specimens, making systematic observations, and publishing articles in ornithological journals, and on Tristan, making an important contribution to the ornithology of the islands. Upon retiring from the colonial civil service in 1961 he was appointed Commonwealth Liaison Officer for the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

(IUCN), based in Switzerland. In 1962 he also took on the role of Acting Secretary General of the IUCN and became Secretary General in 1964. Then in 1966 he changed role to become Secretary of the IUCN's Ecology Commission until 1970, but continued to edit the IUCN's technical publications for several more years. He served on the committee of the

British Ornithologists' Union The British Ornithologists' Union (BOU) aims to encourage the study of birds ("ornithology") and around the world, in order to understand their biology and to aid their conservation. The BOU was founded in 1858 by Professor Alfred Newton, Henr ...

, being Honorary Secretary 1962–66, Vice-President 1970–73 and President 1975–79. He was a Trustee of the

British Museum (Natural History) The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum ...

1971–81 and Chairman of the British Section of the International Council for Bird Preservation 1980–81. His highly regarded book, ''The Herons of the World'', written in co-authorship with James Hancock, was published in 1978.''The Herons of the World'' / James Hancock and Hugh Elliott; with Paintings by Robert Gillmor and Peter Hayman, and Drawings by Robert Gillmor ; aps Prepared by Arka Graphics Harper & Row, New York, 1978. (also:- London: London Editions ) He also wrote, in co-authorship with Jacqueline Henricot, a two-volume book entitled "World Guide to National Parks and Nature Reserves", but it was never published because of his illness in his latter years. He was survived by his wife Elizabeth (d. 2007), his daughters Susan Elspeth Elliott (d. 2017) and Judith Margery Elliott, and his son Clive Christopher Hugh Elliott (d. 2018).

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