Frances Pitt
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Frances Pitt (25 January 1888 – 26 April 1964) was a British naturalist, author and a pioneer of
wildlife photography Wildlife photography is a genre of photography concerned with documenting various forms of wildlife in their natural habitat. As well as requiring photography skills, wildlife photographers may need field craft skills. For example, some anima ...
. She wrote many books and numerous popular articles in periodicals on the lives of many wild animals by observations in the wild and in the process of raising and nursing injured animals. She lived at "The Albynes",
Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...
, three miles south of
Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079. History B ...
from 1903 until 1958 when she moved to Castle House,
Harley Harley may refer to: People * Harley (given name) * Harley (surname) Places * Harley, Ontario, a township in Canada * Harley, Brant County, Ontario, Canada * Harley, Shropshire, England * Harley, South Yorkshire, England * Harley Street, in L ...
near
Much Wenlock Much Wenlock is a market town and parish in Shropshire, England, situated on the A458 road between Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth. Nearby, to the northeast, is the Ironbridge Gorge, and the new town of Telford. The civil parish includes the villag ...
.


Early life and education

Frances Pitt was born at Oldbury Grange, Shropshire before the family moved to Westwood in 1892. Her father William James Pitt, was the son of the vicar of the Parish of
Malmesbury Malmesbury () is a town and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England, which lies approximately west of Swindon, northeast of Bristol, and north of Chippenham. The older part of the town is on a hilltop which is almost surrounded by the up ...
,
Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
. She learnt to read and write from her mother and was tutored by a Mr Carter and a governess. Some of her early influences were the books by
Ernest Thompson Seton Ernest Thompson Seton (born Ernest Evan Thompson August 14, 1860 – October 23, 1946) was an English-born Canadian-American author, wildlife artist, founder of the Woodcraft Indians in 1902 (renamed Woodcraft League of America), and one of ...
.


Career

Her early books were based on experience in taking care of wild animals and these included ''Tommy White-Tag, the fox'' (1912) followed by more personal titles in a series called "The Library Of Animal Friends" which included ''Tom, my peacock''; ''Moses, my otter'' (1927) and ''Katie, my roving cat'' (1930). In ''Diana, My Badger'' published in 1929, she described her experience in raising a pair of baby
badger Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the family Mustelidae (which also includes the otters, wolverines, martens, minks, polecats, weasels, and ferrets). Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united b ...
s brought to her by a rabbit catcher. Of the pair, Diana and Jemima, Diana lived to return to the wild. In the early 1920s she wrote on the genetics and inheritance of colour patterning in
Hereford cattle The Hereford is a British breed of beef cattle originally from Herefordshire in the West Midlands of England. It has spread to many countries – there are more than five million purebred Hereford cattle in over fifty nations worldwide. The bre ...
and on the traits of hybrids between
ferret The ferret (''Mustela furo'') is a small, Domestication, domesticated species belonging to the family Mustelidae. The ferret is most likely a domesticated form of the wild European polecat (''Mustela putorius''), evidenced by their Hybrid (biol ...
s and
polecat Polecat is a common name for several mustelid species in the order Carnivora and subfamilies Ictonychinae and Mustelinae. Polecats do not form a single taxonomic rank (i.e. clade). The name is applied to several species with broad similarities t ...
s. In 1934, she wrote on the increasing trends in badger populations. She also wrote on the topic of hunting in ''Hounds, horses & hunting'' (1948). Her book ''The Squirrel'' published in 1954 was based on an albino squirrel named "Mr Nuts". She was among the first (the first was Miss Phyllis Kelway) to breed harvest mice in captivity. She published ''Wild animals in Britain'' in 1939, and regularly wrote to comment and report on wildlife observations. In 1945, she reported the observations made by Lady Seton (wife of Sir Malcolm Seton) on the mass movements of water shrews. In 1949, she was included along with Peter Medawar and others in a committee to examine cruelty to wild animals which led to protests from the National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports who pointed out her position as a Master of Fox Hounds and as vice-president of the British Field Sports Society. In 1954, Edglets, a brand of tea sold by
Brooke Bond Brooke Bond is a brand of tea owned by Ekaterra, formerly an independent tea-trading and manufacturing company in the United Kingdom, known for its PG Tips brand and its Brooke Bond tea cards. History Brooke Bond & Company was founded by Ar ...
included a series of illustrated cards with British birds photographed by Frances Pitt. Her collection of insects is now in the Ludlow Museum although the specimens lack dates and locality data. She was elected Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1951. She published ''Country years being a naturalist's memories of life in the English countryside and elsewhere'' in 1961, with many autobiographical notes.


Selected publications

Among the numerous books that Frances Pitt wrote are: * Tommy White-Tag, the fox (1912)
Wild creatures of garden and hedgerow
(1920)
Woodland creatures: Being Some Wild Life Studies
(1922) * Shetland pirates, and other wild life studies (1923) * Waterside creatures (1925) * Animal mind (1927) * The intelligence of animals (1931) * Scotty, the adventures of a highland fox (1932)
The naturalist on the prowl
(1934) * Birds and the sea (1935) * Woodpeckers * Wild life studies (1935) * Nature in the wild: a selection of the world's finest photographs (1936) * How to see nature (1940) * Jane Squirrel (1942) * Betty (1943) * Meet Us in the Garden (1946) * Friends in fur and feather (1946) * The year in the countryside (1947) * Hounds, horses & hunting (1948) * Follow me (1949) * Nature through the year (1950)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitt, Frances 1888 births 1964 deaths 20th-century British women scientists 20th-century British women writers English naturalists English nature writers Nature photographers Women naturalists 20th-century naturalists