Hugh Elliott, 3rd Baronet

Who was Hugh Elliott, 3rd Baronet?

Sir Hugh Francis Ivo Elliott, 3rd Baronet of Limpsfield was an eminent British ornithologist and colonial civil servant.

Born in India in 1913, the elder son of Sir Ivo Elliott., he was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford, Eastbourne College and University College, Oxford where he was an active member of the Oxford Ornithological Society. From 1937 until 1961 he worked as a colonial civil servant, mainly in Tanganyika Territory, but he also spent three years as Administrator of Tristan da Cunha. He carried out much ornithological field work in these countries, first by collecting and later by observation, and contributed papers on the birds of the regions. In 1953 he was made O.B.E.

Upon retiring from the colonial civil service in 1961 he was appointed Commonwealth Liaison Officer for the International Union for Conservation of Nature, 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. He served on the committee of the British Ornithologists’ Union being Honorary Secretary 1962-66, Vice President 1970-73 and President 1975-79, was a Trustee of the British Museum 1971-81 and Chairman of the British Section of the International Council for Bird Preservation 1980-81.