Robin Hanbury-Tenison

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Robin Hanbury-Tenison
Born
Airling Robin Hanbury-Tenison

(1936-05-07) 7 May 1936 (age 89)
Education Eton College
Alma mater Magdalen College, Oxford
Organization Survival International (President)
Spouses
(m. 1959;died 1982)
  • Louella Williams
Children3
Website www.robinsbooks.co.uk

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]

Contents

Early life and education

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]

Personal life

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]

Career

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.

Survival International

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]

Farming

Since 1960 Hanbury-Tenison has 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 ]

Later career

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, [14] 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. [15]

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. [16] [17] In 2020 he spent seven weeks in hospital with COVID-19 before returning home to celebrate his 84th birthday. [18]

Awards and achievements

Books

For children

Source: [25]

Films

References

  1. Who's Who 2016.
  2. Rees, Caroline (5 February 2016). "Robin Hanbury-Tenison's Travelling Life". The Telegraph. The Daily Telegraph.
  3. "Survival International".
  4. "Countryside Alliance".
  5. "Hanbury-Tenison, (Airling) Robin, (Born 7 May 1936), farmer; President, Survival International (Chairman, since 1969)". Who's Who. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U18867. ISBN   978-0-19-954088-4.
  6. Hanbury Tenison, M. Deep-Freeze Cookery. 2nd edition. London. Pan Books, 1972, p. i.
  7. Robin Hanbury-Tenison Curriculum Vitae
  8. "Robin Hanbury-Tenison". Burke's Peerage. Archived from the original on 18 October 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  9. "– Feature". WonderLancer.
  10. Smith, Nick (November 2006). "Robin Hanbury-Tenison". Geographical.
  11. Hanbury-Tenison, Robin (1991). Worlds Apart: An Explorer's Life. Arrow Books. pp. 115–128.
  12. "Survival". Business Destinations.
  13. "Mulu Park Expedition" (PDF). Royal Geographical Society.
  14. "BFSS". The Independent. 23 October 2011.
  15. "Countryside March Reference". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) . 3 March 1998.
  16. "80th Year". Cornwall Living.
  17. "8 Challenges". Survival International.
  18. "Veteran explorer, 84, who beat Covid-19 tops Cornish peak". BBC News. 3 October 2020. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  19. "Desert Island Discs". BBC. 1984.
  20. United Kingdom list: "No. 48467". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1980. p. 12.
  21. "National Theatre Exhibition". Akehurst Creative Management.
  22. "Horse Travels – Long Distance Riding".
  23. "The Long Riders Guild – Albania".
  24. "Book Review". The Guardian. 15 January 2011.
  25. "Penguin Children's Books". Penguin.
  26. Radio Times synopsis for broadcast on 17 September