Victor Stolan (born 1893) provided "the germ of the idea"Sir Arthur Norman (1981) The story of the World Wildlife Fund. Contemporary Review vol 239, 23-29. that led Julian Huxley and

Max Nicholson Edward Max Nicholson (12 July 1904 – 26 April 2003) was a pioneering environmentalist, ornithologist and internationalist, and a founder of the World Wildlife Fund. Early life Max Nicholson, as he was known to all, was born in Kilternan, Ir ...

with him to start the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...

. They together with others they recruited founded the organization on 11 September 1961 in Switzerland.Kate Kellaway (7 November 2010)
How the Observer brought the WWF into being

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

.Max Nicholson (1981). The first world conservation lecture. The Environmentalist Volume 1, Number 2, 109-116, Scott, P. (1965). The launching of a new ark: first report of the President and Trustees of the World Wildlife Fund: an international foundation for saving the world's wildlife and wild places; 1961-1964. Collins Originally a Czechoslovakian refugee, Victor Stolan was by that time a naturalized UK citizen that had become a businessman and hotel owner. He died within a few years of the start of the WWF. Colin Willock (1991). Wildfight: a history of conservation. Jonathan Cape. p. 42.

Role in starting WWF

Victor Stolan, born 1893 in Czechoslovakia,BRITISH COMMITTEE FOR REFUGEES FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA AND CZECH REFUGEE TRUST FUND DOCUMENTS AT THE PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
/ref> wrote to Julian Huxley, the author of three articles about the disappearance of wild life in Africa that first appeared on 13 November 1960 in

with "The germ of the idea that was to result in the birth of the World Wildlife Fund". In this letter, dated 6 December 1960, Stolan argued that an international appeal aiming to raise millions of pounds should be set up on behalf of all wild species threatened by extinction. It "urged Huxley to put him in touch with a "single and uninhibited mind… with whom ideas can be developed and speedilly icdirected towards accumulating some millions of pounds without mobilising commissions, committees etc as there is no time for Victorian procedure". Huxley responded by putting him in contact with

who saw the logic of his argument and encouraged Victor to write a memorandum about setting up such a fund. This memorandum has been described as "brilliant, lengthy and eccentric". It argued that help should be sought from the Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury: "Nobody is in too high a place to lend a hand to defend creation." He also argued that "new tycoons" be asked for money to create a "shining monument in history". Nicholson checked the plausibility of setting up such a fund by showing the memorandum to

Guy Mountfort Guy Mountfort (4 December 1905 – 23 April 2003) was an English advertising executive, amateur ornithologist and conservationist. He is known for writing the pioneering ''A Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe'', published in 1954 ...

, the head of a major advertising agency. This was, as "Nicholson later acknowledged, a turning point. As a result, in May 1961, a meeting was held that included

Peter Scott Sir Peter Markham Scott, (14 September 1909 – 29 August 1989) was a British ornithologist, conservationist, painter, naval officer, broadcaster and sportsman. The only child of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott, he took an interest i ...

(the WWF's first chairman) as well as the three initiators.

Exclusion

In the spring and summer of 1961 there were more meetings but Victor Stolan came to be excluded from them. In a letter to Huxley, Nicholson wrote, "Mr Stolan is rather too much the naive enthusiast and rather too little the practical man of affairs to be very much help," Stolan's history as an hotelier was also counted against him: "an unfortunate experience with a country hotel". Nicholson also made prejudicial remarks about his Czechoslovakian background. Another factor could have been that unlike all the other founders of the WWF, Stolan was not like them an ornithologist nor earlier involved in conservationism. Victor Stolan died within a few years of the founding of the WWF.

References

External links

The articles by Julian Huxley in

the Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

which caused Victor Stolan to write to Huxley (note: paid subscription required): *Nov 13 196
The treasure house of wild lifeMore meat from game than cattle
*Nov 20 196
Cropping the wild protein
*Nov 27 196
Wild life as a World Assetsecond page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stolan, Victor 1893 births Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom British hoteliers Czechoslovak refugees Czechoslovak environmentalists Year of death missing Place of death missing Czechoslovak emigrants to the United Kingdom