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Henry Gascoyne Maurice was President of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea 1920-1938 and President of the Zoological Society of London 1942-1948. He also headed the Fisheries Department of the Ministry of Agriculture from 1912 and was Fisheries Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries from 1920 until his retirement in 1938, after which he served on the White Fish Commission from its inception in 1938 until its suspension on the outbreak of the Second World War.

Yarrell was born in Duke Street, St James's in London, to Francis Yarrell and his wife Sarah (nee Blane). His father and uncle ran a newspaper agency and bookshop. He was educated at Dr Nicholson's School in Ealing. In 1802 he became a clerk with the Herries, Farquhar and Co. Bank. In 1803 he and his cousin, Edward Jones, joined his father's business. He acquired the reputation of being the best shot and best angler in London, soon becoming an expert naturalist. He sent many bird specimens to Thomas Bewick, who engraved them as woodcuts.

He joined the Royal Institution in 1817. His first publication was 'On the Occurrence of some Rare British Birds' (1825). This was published in the second volume of the 'Zoological Journal' and he later became one of that journal's editors. He was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1825. He wrote in 1827 on the structure of the tracheae of birds and on plumage changes in pheasants. He corresponded and shared specimens with other naturalists including Thomas Bewick, Sir William Jardine, Prideaux John Selby, Nicholas Aylward Vigors and Jonathan Couch.

Yarrell was one of the original members of the Zoological Society of London. In 1833, he was a founder of what became the Royal Entomological Society of London. He served for many years as treasurer both of the Entomological Society and the Linnean Society. Yarrell's major works were 'A History of British Fishes' (1836) and 'A History of British Birds (1843).

Yarrell died during a trip to Great Yarmouth and a memorial was erected in St James's Church, Piccadilly. He was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's in Bayford, Hertfordshire.

Yarrell had a number of species names after him, including the birds yellow-faced siskin (Carduelis yarrelli), the Chilean woodstar (Eulidia yarrelli) and the fish Yarrell's blenny (Chirolophis ascanii). The British subspecies of the white wagtail, the pied wagtail (Motacilla alba yarrelli) was also named after him.

Senior Overseer at the Zoological Society of London

Desmond John Morris is an English zoologist, ethologist and surrealist painter, as well as an author in human sociobiology. He is known for his 1967 book 'The Naked Ape' and for his television programmes such as 'Zoo TIme'.

Morris was born in Purton, Wiltshire, to Marjorie (nee Hunt) and children's fiction author Harry Morris. He was educated at Dauntsey's School, Wiltshire. In 1946 he joined the British Army for two years of national service, becoming a lecturer in fine arts at the Chiseldon Army College in Wiltshire. After being demobilised he studied zoology at the University of Birmingham. In 1951 he began a doctorate at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, in animal behaviour. In 1954 he earned a Doctor of Philosophy for his work on the reproductive behaviour of the ten-spined stickleback.

In 1956 he moved to London as Head of the Granada TV and Film Unit for the Zoological Society of London, and studies the picture-making abilities of apes. The work included creating programmes for film and television on animal behaviour and other zoology topics. He hosted Granada TV's weekly 'Zoo Time' programme until 1959, and 'Life in the Animal World' for BBC2. In 1957 he organised an exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, showing paintings and drawings composed by common chimpanzees. In 1958 he co-organised an exhibition, 'The Lost Image', which compared pictures by infants, human adults and apes, at the Royal Festival Hall, London. In 1959 he left 'Zoo Time' to become the Zoological Society of London's Curator of Mammals. In 1964 he delivered the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture on Animal Behaviour. In 1967 he spent a year as Executive Director of the London Institute of Contemporary Arts.

Morris's books include 'The Naked Ape: A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal' (1967). Morris moved to Malta in 1968 to write a sequel and other books. In 1973 he returned to Oxford to work for the ethologist Niko Tinbergen. From 1973 to 1981, Morris was a Research Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford. In 1979 he undertook a television series for Thames TV, 'The Human Race', followed in 1982 by 'Man Watching in Japan, The Animals Road Show' in 1986 and then several other series. National Life Stories conducted an oral history interview (C1672/16) with Morris in 2015 for its Science and Religion collection held by the British Library.