Francis Ratcliffe

Last updated

Francis Noble Ratcliffe
OBE
CSIRO ScienceImage 2233 Francis Ratcliffe 19041970.jpg
Francis Ratcliffe
Born(1904-01-11)11 January 1904
Died8 December 1970(1970-12-08) (aged 66)
Canberra, Australia
Education Berkhamsted School
Alma mater University of Oxford
Princeton University
Occupation(s)Zoologist
Conservationist
Parent
Relatives Nicholas Walter (nephew)
William Grey Walter (brother-in-law)
Arnold Beck (brother-in-law)

Francis Noble Ratcliffe OBE (11 January 1904 – 8 December 1970) was an Australian zoologist and conservationist.

Ratcliffe was born a British citizen in Calcutta, India. He was educated at Berkhamsted School and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and at Princeton University in the USA. After a short period working in London with the Empire Marketing Board, in 1929 he was brought to Australia by the CSIR to study flying foxes in northern New South Wales and Queensland, afterwards returning to Britain to work in the zoology department at the University of Aberdeen. However, he returned to Australia permanently in 1935, working with the CSIR, and its successor the CSIRO, on such problems as wind erosion, termites and rabbit control. He was also a founder of the Australian Conservation Foundation, serving as its first Honorary Secretary.

Ratcliffe retired from the CSIRO in 1969. He died in Canberra the following year of a cerebral haemorrhage.

Bibliography

As well as various scientific papers and reports, books authored by Ratcliffe include:

1965 (with Frank Fenner) Myxmatosis, Cambridge University Press.

1970 – The Commercial Hunting of Kangaroos. Australian Conservation Foundation: Melbourne.

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References