Profile Brian and Hilli Thompson

    Intrepid followers of this humble slot will possibly be relieved to know that the writer had little difficulty in locating the home of the subjects of this particular 'Profile'. This may not be wholly unconnected with the fact that Brian and Hilli Thompson live only about 80 yards away from our house and the Parsons family know our way there blindfolded. It was Brian and Hilli who stimulated my wife and I early in our marriage to become actively involved in recording and the struggles for conservation and the environment. For many years now we have taken Brian & Hilli very much for granted and have readily called upon their encyclopaedic knowledge of natural history as well as put upon them for all the sorts of other things that neighbours do. Ironically, it took the comments of one of the County's leading ornithologists to point out that it was about time the 'Profile' spotlight was turned on them.

    In addition to being the South-Eastern Bird Recorder for Suffolk Naturalists' Society(SNS)/Suffolk Ornithologists Group (SOG) , Brian has been a ringer for the British Trust Ornithology(BTO) for many years and today he enjoys their Trainer status; a category shared by only a handful of licensed ornithologists in Suffolk. He leads ringing teams at a variety of sites in the County and has produced numerous papers on ornithological subjects. Like many active ornithologists, Brian has an excellent knowledge of wildlife generally and he regularly submits records of other species along with his 'trawl' of birds. For many years he was joint warden of the Suffolk Wildlife Trust (SWT) reserve at Newbourne Springs. Hilli is principally artistic and botanical. She has been recording and illustrating wild flowers for many years for the Botanical Society of the British Isles(BSBI) and gives talks on a broad spectrum of botanical subjects. She has become one of Britain's leading illustrators of flora and produced most of the plates used in Stace's The New Flora of the British Isles. The book has become an essential point of reference for British botanists. The familiar White Admiral and honeysuckle logo that has been used by the SNS for many years was also produced by Hilli. Brian and Hilli have given considerable support over the years to many environmental, conservation and natural history groups.

    Brian assured me that he was born. Having established that he did not materialise out of the ether, he was pleased to point out that his birthday was the day Stanley Baldwin retired in 1937. He remembers very little about it as he was very young at the time (my familiarity with this particular brand of humour assured me that the interview at this point was still viable). The Thompsons were a small family of Mum, Dad, Brian and a 'little' brother. Thompson Snr. was a valued chef who spent the greater part of his working life as the Catering Manager of St. Thomas's Hospital, London, but he also worked at various times at the Dorchester and Savoy hotels. Brian attributes his interest in natural history to the Second World War and the fact that his dad was a conscientious objector. The result of his father's convictions was that the family were moved away from their Battersea home and sent to Hampshire where his father was required to run a War Agricultural Committee Hostel. The hostel accommodated a large number of Irish agricultural workers who had been attracted to the mainland to replace the local men who had been called up to serve in the armed forces.

Meadow Saxifrage
by Hilli Thompson

    The village where they were based was on the River Test near Stockbridge in Hampshire by the waters of one of the most exclusive fishing clubs in Britain. For the boys, who had spent their infancy in the streets of Battersea, life in the village was a dream come true. Very soon they were tending a 'zoo' of domestic animals in their back garden and swarming all over forbidden countryside dodging water bailiffs and gamekeepers. He soon learned how to tickle trout and locate the resting places of salmon. The latter, grander fish sometimes fell to a pitch fork or some other illegal device wielded by the boys. On one occasion a prize salmon was laid out on a tray in the kitchen when a knock on the door revealed the village policeman. Brian remembers how his mother deftly swept the tray up high above her head, said 'good morning' to the policeman and then paraded swiftly out of the room. The policeman was none the wiser, but the guilty lad was sure his number was up at that moment. No item of game was sacred to the boys during the war and if it didn't end up in the Thompson's cuisine it was only because of boys failure to develop an effective method of bringing it to the table. The countryside and everything in it was great fun for Brian, and his wartime experiences in Hampshire laid the foundations of an interest that was to remain with him for the rest of his life.

    Perhaps the Test Valley gave a sigh of relief when the Thompson family returned to London after the war. From many hours talking with Brian when we have been out ringing, I not only learnt a great deal about natural history, but also a great deal about the importance of recording. As a person with a poor memory, I have a propensity to embellish a sketchy recollection with superfluous comment in order to make it more presentable. Believe me, you don't 'flannel' people like Brian for long. Our best recorders have astonishing memories and detail always seem to form a natural part of the structure of their recollections. Chatting away for 'Profiles' with recorders I sometimes find that I have difficulty containing my amazement for fear of losing the flow of a conversation. Manifestations of this disquieting condition frequently happen when I'm talking with Brian. Trying to establish a time-scale for my account, I suggested to him that the family returned to London in 'about '48', his response was, 'we were back in London for the Cup Final of '48 because we were listening to it on the radio and I can remember Blackpool leading 2:1 at half-time.' (!)

    Back in Battersea, Brian soon developed an interest in bird watching. He haunted places like Wimbledon Common and Battersea and Richmond Parks in a quest to ,eyeball' a few new species. Brian's first introduction to bird ringing came soon after he left school and joined the London Natural History Society. There he met some ringers who invited him to join a group ringing Swifts at a sewage farm. Later, at University, he became involved in ringing again with a group of ornithologists there. He joined the BTO at the same time, but it was not until many years later that he was inspired to work towards a BTO ringing licence by John Brinkley of Felixstowe, a leading local bird ringer. The two ringing enthusiasts had been introduced by an unsung hero and another Felixstowe man. That person was Mike Wise who was (and still is) the warden of Suffolk Wildlife Trust (SWT) Newbourne Springs. The two became great friends and for the past 20 years Brian and Mike have led the volunteer work parties that have turned this dark and neglected corner of the County into a vibrant haven for a diversity of wildlife (Brian is one of a gathering group of dissidents from the original workforce who are convinced that a recent and unpopular management strategy is proving counterproductive).

    At about the time that Brian was thinning out salmon on the Test, Hilli was but a twinkle in her father's eye. Her dad made a living as an accountant, but he was a natural artist who could play a variety of musical instruments and paint landscapes and flowers. All these characteristics Hilli has inherited and today her life is dominated by botany, music and a variety of other art forms. As a child Hilli was never short of encouragement to appreciate the wildlife that surrounded her, as both parents were interested in natural history and gardening. She recalls that both the British Museum and Kew Gardens were favourite places for the small family to visit from their Wembley home near the famous stadium. When the family moved to London in 1953 their new locality was still quite rural. Hilli remembers a farm nearby and cows grazing behind Wembley stadium. Northwick Park was another expanse of countryside that she frequented as a child, but another that no longer exists due to the urban sprawl that has continued since then.

    Hilli got caught up in the '60s 'thing' as most young people of her generation did. Today she is an unmistakable figure who wears flowing dresses of purple and magenta, or sometimes striking yellow trousers and, more often than not, a conspicuous red hat. Hilli carries all the flamboyant hallmarks of the artist that she is. Surely this child of the Swinging Sixties with all her greenness, botany and bold colours was a part of the 'flower child' cult of that time? Not a bit of it; Hilli insists that she was definitely not one of the mainstream girls who were strictly looking to get adventure out of the liberation of that time. At sweet sixteen she liked nothing better than to take the tube alone across London and promenade home along unfamiliar streets and alleys, exploring undiscovered museums and churches as she went.

    Many of us are familiar with Hilli's plant drawings, but she works in a variety of mediums on other subjects as well. Examples of her broad spectrum of work can be seen at exhibitions periodically held throughout Suffolk. She cannot remember where she learnt to read music. She probably picked it up from her father who played a variety of instruments at home. Her specialities are a clarinet and recorders of the larger sizes. One of her favourite recorders is a tailor-made great bass which is about the size of an aboriginal didjeridu but sounds a good deal better. She plays locally with the Community Light Orchestra and The Wind Band, and a loosely formed recorder ensemble for even more fun and odd events.

    Sport is one of Brian's other passions. He played both football and cricket for his school and later became Captain of his University's 2nd 11 cricket team. I have described how Brian and Hilli have a very 'green' lifestyle. It is a relative condition that many of us think we pursue to varying degrees. In the early days, we were impressed that Brian and Hilli had avoided many of the trappings of the age that most of us have grown to consider essential to living. Among other things, they did not own a car or TV as far as we could make out. One day I wandered in to speak to Brian and he was sitting in an armchair intently staring at the top of a 'radio' which was standing on the floor by his feet. He suddenly raised his arms and cheered. England had bowled out a batsman at the critical point of the match. He was watching a cricket match on a tiny TV screen mounted in the top of the ,radio'. Today, a full scale TV exists in a box room and I suspect that it rarely gets used except to support Brian's ravenous appetite for sport. Televised football matches involving Chelsea, for instance, will definitely not escape his attention.

    The 'tele' may reflect a certain amount of capitulation to the excesses of the age and an automobile has also crept into the domestic, technical inventory in recent times. However, animal products and non-organic foods remain strictly outside their domain. Having objections to technologies that ultimately lead to unsustainable demands upon the environment, or unnecessary cruelty to animals, are philosophies that should not be confused with the irrational fear of technology that many people today seem to have developed. For many years Brian taught information technology and computer studies at a local school and he was somebody who identified at an early stage the potential of personal computers as a valuable tool for naturalists. He was one of the first naturalists in the locality to computerise his own records and he stresses the value of others submitting records in a standard format so they can be ,entered' easily into a computer. This doesn't mean that contributors have necessarily to be computer literate or computer owners to be effective, just a bit more sympathetic towards the large task County Recorders have on their hands. It also doesn't mean that Recorders don't want telephone calls and letters any more; they would just like to be able to spend more time on these. The burden of work for Recorders, especially the highly productive bird section, is getting so demanding that the time will come that only standardised records can be catalogued.

    Brian studied at a grammar school and left with GCE 'A' levels zoology, botany and chemistry. He didn't go to University at that time as he was 'fed up' with education, but instead got a job as a laboratory technician at the Regent Street Polytechnic. There he was involved with many aspects of research chemistry. Chemists among our readership may be interested to learn that Brian was one of the first people to use gas and thin layer chromatography to identify unknown chemicals. He continued to work at the Polytechnic for 10 years where he gained advanced level City & Guilds qualifications and became the Senior Technician. Hilli expanded her knowledge of botany in later life and, like Brian, gained a GCE 'A' level in botany before she left school. She laments the fact that the subject of botany now appears to have been dropped from the educational curriculum (good botanists are becoming harder to find among younger folk). She progressed to the University of Newcastle where she graduated in Anthropology. Her future seemed at that point to be going in the direction of a career as a librarian. This all changed at about the time that she met Brian in the library of the Regent Street Polytechnic.

    Brian discovered Hilli at the Polytechnic and it was perhaps her plan to return to university to gain a higher degree that inspired Brian that it was time that he graduated. They left together to study at the University of Ulster in 1968, about the time that the current 'troubles' broke out and the Provisional Irish Republican Army began tooling up for a war with the old enemy. In spite of the forebodings that the situation suggested, and regardless of the fact that they found themselves in the constituency of a ranting Protestant warlord, the couple witnessed very little unrest at Colraine. Brian gained a Degree in Education, Mathematics and Russian and Hilli a Masters Degree in Philosophy and Anthropology. Hilli gained her Masters degree a year before Brian graduated and so took a job in the local technical college teaching sociology - her first post as a teacher. One of the subjects that she was asked to teach was the sociology of religion; a task she approached with more than a little trepidation, especially as she was a convinced atheist. More disconcerting was the revelation that among her students was the Chairman of the Young Unionists and half a dozen girls from the local convent. A bit of a 'minefield' she confessed. Hilli abandoned teaching to pursue a career as an artist. The bird-watching in Ulster was excellent.

    After University, Brian and Hilli taught at Scarborough and Lowestoft before settling in the suburbs of Ipswich. They live in a modest pre-war end terrace in which they have converted the roof space to provide a studio. They have assembled a comprehensive library comprising mainly natural history reference books and publications. A local allotment that they cultivate organically provides most of their vegetable needs and their own fairy-tale garden abounds with a variety of herbs. They keep a small flock of chickens they rescued from a local battery farm. Brian and Hilli are both fiercely vegetarian (Hilli is vegan) and they are both committed to upholding the wider, 'greener' environment. They are good examples of the continued movement of committed 'greens' who strive in their lives to find a harmonious coexistence with the other organisms that inhabit this planet.

Eric Parsons