I was saddened to hear of the passing of Jeremy Mallinson on the 2nd February 2021. Jeremy was Gerald Durrell's right hand man for many years and ran Jersey Zoo as Director both before and after Durrell's death. He was there from the earliest of days and I had the pleasure of meeting him during my time doing a course at Durrell in 1996. I am away from my library so cannot write much about his life with reliability, but include this notice from the Conservation Planning Specialist Group:
"Jeremy Mallinson, recipient of the 2017 Ulysses S. Seal Award for Innovation in Conservation.
The CPSG family, and the international conservation community, has lost a great friend, an inspiring mentor, a true gentleman. Jeremy Mallinson OBE died on 2 February 2021.
Jeremy, a valued member of CPSG who served on our Strategic Committee for decades, was the very embodiment of our CPSG Principles. He was a master diplomat who could facilitate conversations about the trickiest of subjects, among people with widely different starting positions, to bring them together around a shared decision that was good for the species. And he would do it with a good dash of humor. He was respectful to everyone and insisted on including everybody – and he would still know everyone’s name umpteen years later. The words ‘inclusive’, ‘cross disciplinary’, ‘transnational’, ‘collaborative’ and ‘culturally sensitive’ fit him like a glove. Jeremy was an avid believer and promotor of science-based decision making. Few things could make him happier than another great paper on species and their conservation. His encyclopedic knowledge and detailed note taking of both the professional and personal events he experienced are legendary. He firmly lived by the principle that knowledge should be generated, shared, and history recorded, as is evidenced by his own impressive publication record. But science had to result in conservation – he most definitely believed in planning to ‘promote and guide effective action’, and action he achieved.
And he was great fun. No one who was present at the closing dinner of CPSG’s 1999 Annual Meeting in South Africa will forget watching Jeremy don a wetsuit (backwards) and waterski past the tables of cheering colleagues!"
We will miss Jeremy terribly and remember him fondly. The very best way to honor him is to keep fighting for wildlife – as Jeremy would say ‘Carry on chaps’!
"Jeremy Mallinson, recipient of the 2017 Ulysses S. Seal Award for Innovation in Conservation.
The CPSG family, and the international conservation community, has lost a great friend, an inspiring mentor, a true gentleman. Jeremy Mallinson OBE died on 2 February 2021.
Jeremy, a valued member of CPSG who served on our Strategic Committee for decades, was the very embodiment of our CPSG Principles. He was a master diplomat who could facilitate conversations about the trickiest of subjects, among people with widely different starting positions, to bring them together around a shared decision that was good for the species. And he would do it with a good dash of humor. He was respectful to everyone and insisted on including everybody – and he would still know everyone’s name umpteen years later. The words ‘inclusive’, ‘cross disciplinary’, ‘transnational’, ‘collaborative’ and ‘culturally sensitive’ fit him like a glove. Jeremy was an avid believer and promotor of science-based decision making. Few things could make him happier than another great paper on species and their conservation. His encyclopedic knowledge and detailed note taking of both the professional and personal events he experienced are legendary. He firmly lived by the principle that knowledge should be generated, shared, and history recorded, as is evidenced by his own impressive publication record. But science had to result in conservation – he most definitely believed in planning to ‘promote and guide effective action’, and action he achieved.
And he was great fun. No one who was present at the closing dinner of CPSG’s 1999 Annual Meeting in South Africa will forget watching Jeremy don a wetsuit (backwards) and waterski past the tables of cheering colleagues!"
We will miss Jeremy terribly and remember him fondly. The very best way to honor him is to keep fighting for wildlife – as Jeremy would say ‘Carry on chaps’!
