Patrick Bateson was an English biologist with interests in ethology and phenotypic plasticity. He was Professor at the University of Cambridge and served as President of the Zoological Society of London from 2004 to 2014.
Sir John Rex Beddington is a British population biologist and Senior Adviser at the Oxford Martin School, and was previously Professor of Applied Population Biology at Imperial College London, and the UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser from 2008 until 2013. He is the President of the Zoological Society of London.
Field Marshall Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke was a senior officer of the British Army. He was Chief of the Imperial General Staff, the professional head of the British Army, during the Second World War, and was promoted to Field Marshall in 1944. As Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, Brooke was the foremost military advisor to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and had the role of co-ordinator of the British military efforts in the Allies' victory in 1945. After retiring from the British Army, he served as Lord High Constable of England during the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
He was a noted ornithologist, especially in bird photography. He was President of the Zoological Society of London between 1950 and 1954, and Vice-President of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds between 1949 and 1961.
Edward William Spencer Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire, known as the Marquess of Hartington from 1908 to 1938, was a British politician. He was head of the Devonshire branch of the House of Cavendish. He was President of the Zoological Society of London 1948-1950
Field Marshall Sir John Lyon Chapple is a retired British Army officer who served as Chief of the General Staff from 1988-1992. He was President of the Zoological Society of London 1992-1994.
Sir George Clerk of Pennyculk, 6th Baronet was a Scottish politician who served as the Tory MP for Edinburghshire, Stamford and Dover. He was Chairman of the Royal Academy of Music and President of the Zoological Society of London 1862-1867.
Sir William Henry Flower was a surgeon, museum curator and comparative anatomist, who became a leading authority on mammals and especially on the primate brain. He supported Thomas Henry Huxley in a controversy with Richard Owen about the human brain and eventually succeeded Owen as Director of the Natural History Museum.
On the recommendation of Huxley and others, in 1862 he became Conservator of the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, holding the post for 22 years, and in 1864 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1870 he became Hunterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy, in succession of Huxley, and began a series of lectures that ran for fourteen years, all on aspects of Mammalia. The essence was published in his books of 1870 and 1891. He was elected President of the Zoological Society of London in 1879, holding the post for life, and in 1882 was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society. From 1883 to 1885 he was President of the Anthropological Institute.
In 1884, on the retirement of Sir Richard Owen, he was appointed to the directorship of what were then the Natural History departments of the British Museum in South Kensington. In 1889 he was chosen as President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, having previously headed its biological section in 1878 and its anthropological section in 1881 (being chosen again in 1894). In 1893 he served as President of the Museums Association. In 1895, in addition to his role as Director he took over the post of Keeper of Zoology, holding it until his retirement.
Prince Albert of Sax-Coburg and Gotha was the consort of Queen Victoria from their marriage on 10th February 1840 until his death in 1861. He was President of the Zoological Society of London 1851-1862.
Sir William MacGregor Henderson was a Scottish veterinary expert on foot and mouth disease. He was President of the Zoological Society of London 1984-1989.
Sir Martin Wyatt Holdgate was born in 1931 and grew up in Blackpool. He was educated as Arnold School. He then attended Cambridge University as an undergraduate at Queens' College, Cambridge from 1949, graduating in 1952 with degrees in zoology and botany and, subsequently, a doctorate in insect physiology.
He taught at Manchester University, Durham University and Cambridge, as well as undertaking expeditions to Tristan da Cunha, south-west Chile and the Antarctic. He was CHief Biologist to the British Antarctic Survey, then research director of the Nature Conservancy Council and, for eighteen years, Chief Scientist and head of research at the Department of the Environment. Subsequently, he was Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. After his retirement he was a member of the Royal Commission on Environment Pollution and served as co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests, and Secretary of the UN Secretary General's High-Level Board on Sustainable Development. He was President of the Zoological Society of London 1994-2004.