Robin Hanbury-Tenison | |
|---|---|
| Born | Airling Robin Hanbury-Tenison 7 May 1936 |
| Education | Eton College |
| Alma mater | Magdalen College, Oxford |
| Organization | Survival International (President) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3 |
| Website | www |
Airling Robin Hanbury-Tenison OBE DL FLS FRGS (born 7 May 1936) [1] is an explorer based in Cornwall. [2] He is President of the charity Survival International [3] and was previously Chief Executive of The Countryside Alliance. [4]
The youngest of five children born to Gerald Evan Farquhar Tenison, a Major in the 3rd Dragoon Guards, and his wife Ruth Julia Margarette Hanbury of the Pontypool Park Estate, Robin grew up on the Tenison family's historic Anglo-Irish estate Lough Bawn in Castleblayney, County Monaghan, Ireland.
He was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford. [5]
In 1959, he married Marika Hopkinson. She became well known for her cookery books. [6] They had two children, Lucy (b. 1960) and Rupert (b. 1970). [7] Marika died in 1982.
Hanbury-Tenison and his second wife Louella (née Williams) own a newly built house, The Old Deer House next to their previous one which they gave to their son, Merlin Hanbury-Tenison, on Bodmin Moor, which is both their home and a bed and breakfast business. They have a son, Merlin (b. 1985). [8] The farm on Bodmin Moor which he farmed from 1960 to 2018 was passed on to his son Merlin who also provides holiday cottages there.
In 1957 Hanbury-Tenison was the first person to travel overland by jeep from London to Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon). [9] In 1958 he and Richard Mason became the first to cross South America overland at its widest point. [10] In 1964–65 he made the first river crossing of South America from north to south from the Orinoco to Buenos Aires (at first with Sebastian Snow). In 1968 he took part in the Geographical magazine's Amazonas Expedition by hovercraft from Manaus in Brazil to the Republic of Trinidad.
Discussions with the ethnobotanist Conrad Gorinsky led to the foundation of the charity Survival International. [11] [12] In 1971, as Chairman of Survival (and with Marika), he visited 33 Indian tribes in Brazil at the invitation of the Brazilian government and reported on their condition. In 1977–78 he led the Royal Geographical Society's Gunung Mulu expedition to Sarawak, the Society's largest expedition at that time, taking 115 scientists into the rainforest for 15 months. [13]
From 1960 to 2018 Hanbury-Tenison farmed over 2,000 acres of hill farm on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall with sheep and cattle, diversified with Angora goats, red deer and wild boar from Russia, and later farming energy from wind, solar, water and biomass.[ citation needed ] The farm has been farmed by Merlin Hanbury-Tenison since 2018 who aims for greater sustainability. [14]
In 1982 and 1983 he organised Capital Radio's Venture Days in Battersea Park. From 1995 to 1998 he was CEO of the British Field Sports Society, [15] now the Countryside Alliance. He organised the Countryside Rally, which brought 130,000 people to Hyde Park in July 1997, and the Countryside March when 300,000 marched through London in 1998. [16]
In 2015–16 he celebrated his 80th year by undertaking eight challenges, starting with the London Marathon, which raised over £80,000 for Survival International. [17] [18] In 2020 he spent seven weeks in hospital with COVID-19 before returning home to celebrate his 84th birthday. [19]
Source: [26]
