Dr Janet Kear (1933 - 2004)

Tim Davis

Janet Kear was born in London on 13 January 1933. She was educated at Walthamstow Hall in Sevenoaks, Caspar Junior College in Wyoming, and King's College, London, graduating with a degree in biology. As a postgraduate at Girton College, Cambridge, she gained her PhD on the feeding ecology of finches in 1959. In the same year, she joined the Wildfowl Trust (now the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust) as a research scientist – an association that lasted her entire life.

In 1977, Janet moved from Slimbridge to Lancashire to become curator of WWT Martin Mere, which she developed into one of the most important in the WWT chain of regional wetland centres. It now attracts up to 20,000 Pink-footed Geese and 1,300 Whooper Swans each winter, with large numbers of people enjoying the spectacle.

Despite her busy life with WWT, Janet found the time to contribute to ornithology more widely. She was editor of Ibis, the journal of the British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU), from 1980-1988, a period during which the journal’s academic standing grew worldwide. In 1990 she was elected the BOU’s vice-president, and in 1990 became its first woman president, a post she held until 1994. Throughout her retirement Janet fulfilled the role of editor of the BOU’s international series of ornithological checklists. Fittingly, in 1998 she was awarded the BOU medal.

Before and during her retirement, Janet served a wide array of organisations, among them the Council for the Study of Animal Behaviour, the Avicultural Society, British Trust for Ornithology, RSPB, Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust and English Nature. From 1982-1998 she served on the committee of the International Ornithological Congress and was vice-president for its 1998 meeting in Durban. At the time of her death she was a serving Trustee of WWT and the National Museums Liverpool. In 1993 she was awarded the OBE for services to conservation.

Her first marriage, to Professor Geoffrey Matthews, was dissolved in 1978. It was while curator of WWT Martin Mere that she met her second husband, John Turner, himself a keen birdwatcher and bird ringer and a former member of DBWPS Council.

On leaving WWT in 1993, Janet, and later John, retired to their King’s Nympton home on the banks of the River Mole. From this idyllic spot she continued to write and advise on wetland and wildfowl issues right up to the time of her death. She dedicated much of her time to the preparation of a book on the world’s wildfowl, a task begun in 1991. The result, Ducks, Geese and Swans, was published to critical acclaim in April 2005 in the Oxford University Press series ‘Bird Families of the World’ – the culmination of 13 years during which Janet worked tirelessly to coordinate the inputs of 73 wildfowl specialists. In all, Janet prepared six books and co-authored two others, most memorably Man and Wildfowl (1990), a beautifully written account of human interaction with ducks, geese and swans since medieval times. She also published over 90 scientific papers.

Janet was a regular volunteer at the Braunton Countryside Centre, and frequently gave talks to local groups and societies. As President of DBWPS, a post she held for nine years, her quiet wisdom and ever-sharp sense of humour helped guide the development of the Society’s recently adopted constitution. She resigned as President in March 2004.

One of the most pioneering and accomplished ornithologists of her generation, Janet was loved and admired by the many people whose lives she touched around the world. Diagnosed with a brain tumour at the beginning of September 2004, Janet Kear died on 24 November 2004.