Leicester Lit & Phil Natural History Section: The North Coast of Sutherland: a botanical odyssey

Ian will give us an account of the botanical recording he has carried out with friends along the north coast of Scotland (from Cape Wrath in the west to the Caithness border in the east), and inland from it, since 2015, for the next BSBI Atlas, with excursions into other natural history topics. Ian is the current BSBI Recorder for West Sutherland (VC108), but his interests are much wider than higher plants, and he and his friends are also now concentrating their efforts on the wildlife of the parish of Tongue, in the middle of that stretch of coast. 

Ian is an active member of the Assynt Field Club, especially associated with the Wildlife Project). 
Ian is still a member of the Natural History Section and follows the news and Newsletters of the LLPS.NHS with great interest, since he was the first editor of the latter and persuaded the Museum Designer, Ray Lee to design the badger logo.  He was an officer of the Section (Hon. Sec., Chairman and President) between 1960 and 1991, when he and his wife Pat emigrated to Sutherland. Professionally, he was Keeper of Biology, Assistant Director (Natural Sciences) and County Ecologist, with the Leicester and later Leicestershire Museums Service for the whole of his working career, Chairman of the Leicestershire Flora Committee and Scientific Officer for the LRWT.