Nigel Degge Wilmot Sitwell (23 August 1935 in

Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hampshire, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 70,131 and the district had a pop ...

, Hampshire – 2017) was an English conservationist, writer, editor and businessman specialising in wildlife and travel. He is noted for his travels in nearly 100 countries, including Antarctica, Tibet, East Africa and East Asia. In addition he edited and published the WWF magazine series ''Wildlife'' for 17 years.

Career

After finishing

Sherborne School Sherborne School is a full-boarding school for boys aged 13 to 18 located beside Sherborne Abbey in the Dorset town of Sherborne. The school has been in continuous operation on the same site for over 1,300 years. It was founded in 705 AD by Ald ...

in 1953 Sitwell went to Canada where he worked as financial journalist for

The Montreal Gazette ''The Gazette'', also known as the ''Montreal Gazette'', is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper which is owned by Postmedia Network. It is published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the only English-language daily newspape ...

from 1958 to 1961. In 1964, he joined the editorial board of the ailing WWF magazine ''Animals'' which was founded in 1963. Subsequently, he bought that magazine. From January 1967 it was published monthly. In May 1974, the title was changed into ''Wildlife'' to present a wider range of featured topics.Key moments in the history of BBC Wildlife Magazine
, discoverwildlife.com. Retrieved 6 April 2017. In 1983, this magazine was renamed into BBC Wildlife. By 2000, Sitwell started the new project ''Ocean Explorer'' where he published richly illustrated maps about several areas of the world like

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), previously known as Spitsbergen or Spitzbergen, is a Norway, Norwegian archipelago that lies at the convergence of the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean. North of continental Europe, mainland Europe, it lies about midway be ...

South Georgia South Georgia is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. ...

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

, South America,

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; ), commonly referred to as The Falklands, is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and from Cape Dub ...

, the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

, the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands () are an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Eastern Pacific, located around the equator, west of the mainland of South America. They form the Galápagos Province of the Republic of Ecuador, with a population of sli ...

, the

Mediterranean islands The Mediterranean Sea basin is supposed to host more than 10,000 islands, with 2,217 islands larger than 0.01 km2. The two main island countries in the region are Malta and Cyprus, while other countries with islands in the Mediterranean Sea in ...

, and

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

. These detailed travel maps are directed in particular to cruise ship passengers and include information about wildlife, landscapes, landmarks, and notable explorers. In collaboration with

Lars-Eric Lindblad Lars-Eric Lindblad (January 23, 1927 – July 8, 1994) was a Swedish- American entrepreneur and explorer, who pioneered tourism to many remote and exotic parts of the world. He led the first tourist expedition to Antarctica in 1966 in a chartered ...

he developed the Antarctica program for the cruise line ''

Orient Lines Orient Lines was a cruise line specialising in exotic destinations that was in operation 1993–2008. The brand was founded in 1993 by Gerry Herrod, and was sold to Norwegian Cruise Line in 1998. It ceased operations in March 2008 and was sold t ...

'' in 1993 where he was expedition leader for 14 seasons on ships such as ''Professor Khromov'', '' Alla Tarasova'', ''Ocean Princess'', and ''

MS Marco Polo MS ''Marco Polo'' was a cruise ship originally built as ocean liner ''Aleksandr Pushkin'' in 1965 by Mathias-Thesen-Werft, East Germany for the Soviet Union's Baltic Shipping Company. After major alterations and additions, the ship operated ...

''. These cruises not only went to Antarctica but also to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the

Ross Sea The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica, between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land and within the Ross Embayment, and is the southernmost sea on Earth. It derives its name from the British explorer James Clark Ross who ...

. Sitwell was often on Galápagos. He first visited this islands in 1967 and travelled there for about fifty times. In 1995, he was among the founder trustees of the

Galapagos Conservation Trust The Galapagos Conservation Trust (GCT) is a British conservation charity (registered number 1043470) which focuses on saving animals at risk of extinction on the Galapagos Islands. It is a member of the Friends of Galapagos Organisations (also ...

where he served as chairman from 1997 to 2006. He was succeeded by Richard Robinson. Sitwell served as Director of Information for WWF UK. In addition he was member of the Council of the

Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity and organization devoted to the worldwide animal conservation, conservation of animals and their habitat conservation, habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained London Zo ...

and a long-time trustee of

Survival International Survival International is a human rights organisation formed in 1969, a London based charity that campaigns for the collective rights of Indigenous, tribal and uncontacted peoples. The organisation's campaigns generally focus on tribal people ...

where he was director of the charitable trust from 1996 to 1997. For his achievement in nature conservation he was awarded with the

Order of the Golden Ark The Most Excellent Order of the Golden Ark () is a Dutch order of merit established in 1971 by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. It is awarded to people for major contributions to nature conservation. Although not awarded by the government o ...

by HRH Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. Sitwell was a member of the

UK Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP, ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of parliament (both through defect ...

. He was candidate during the West Sussex County Council elections in the district

Chichester Chichester ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in the Chichester District, Chichester district of West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher ...

South in 2005, 2009, and 2013.West Sussex County Council elections – 2013
andrewteale.me.uk. Retrieved 14 April 2017. He died at age 81 in 2017 from Alzheimer's disease.

Selected works

*Happy The Man. Episodes in an Exciting Life, 1967 (with Sir Peter Scott) *Animal Life '73: the World Conservation Yearbook, 1973 *An Artist in Africa, 1973 (with David Shepherd) *Wild Life Today: World Conservation Handbook, 1974 *Wildlife '74, the World Conservation Yearbook, 1974 *Wildlife '75, the World Conservation Yearbook, 1975 *Wild Life Now, 1976 *Wildlife '76, the World Conservation Yearbook, 1976 *The World of Wild Life, 1977 *Wildlife '77, the World Conservation Yearbook, 1977 *Wildlife '78, the World Conservation Yearbook, 1978 *Wildlife '79, 1979 *Wildlife '80, the World Conservation Yearbook, 1980 *A Field Guide to the British Countryside, 1981 *Wildlife '81, the World Conservation Yearbook, 1981 *Wildlife & nature photography, 1981 *Wildlife '82/ '83, 1983 *Wildlife '84, the World Conservation Yearbook, 1984 *Shell Guide to Britain's Threatened Wild Life, 1984 *Safari: The East African Diaries of a Wildlife Photographer, 1984 *Antarctic Primer, 1997 *Antarctica: the Reader, 2006 *Galapagos: A Guide to the Animals and Plants, 2011

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sitwell, Nigel 1935 births 2017 deaths English explorers English writers English conservationists People educated at Sherborne School British explorers of Antarctica Tourism in Antarctica People from Gosport