James F. Monk

James Francis Monk (born October 8, 1915 in Delhi , India , † May 8, 2014 in Goring-on-Thames ) was a British ornithologist and doctor .

Life

Monk was the son of a missionary family. From 1929 to 1934 he graduated from Winchester College . In 1937 he received a Bachelor of Arts in Physiology from Trinity College and in 1941 a Bachelor of Medecine from the University of Oxford . He qualified as a doctor and joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1942 , where he worked in North Africa and Italy for four years and eventually took over the management of the malaria research unit at the Royal Herbert Hospital in Woolwich . He has published articles on malaria in the British Medical Journal and the Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene . In 1947 he accepted a position as a family doctor in Goring-on-Thames and continued to work there until he retired in 1981. In 1949 he earned a doctorate in medicine from the University of Oxford for his research on malaria.

Despite the demands of family and professional life, Monk made a significant contribution to ornithology. His article on the breeding biology of the greenfinch ( Carduelis chloris chloris ) was the first to be published in the first issue of Bird Study in 1954 . He was co-author of articles on bird migration in Algeria and Portugal that were published in the journals Ardeola and Ibis , respectively. Between 1954 and 1958, on behalf of the British Trust for Ornithology, he organized a national survey on the wryneck ( Jynx torquilla ) in Great Britain, which confirmed the sharp decline in the species as a breeding bird , and he published two studies on the species in the Bird Study .

Monk also made a major contribution as an editor. He became deputy editor-in-chief of Ibis magazine in 1956 , followed Reginald Ernest Moreau as editor-in-chief in 1960 and held this position until 1966. Monk took on the daunting task of following the two previous editors-in-chief Moreau and David Lack , who had turned Ibis into a modern scientific journal. More articles were submitted and the scientific content became more thorough and extensive. When Moreau died in 1970, Monk took over the role of his literary administrator and in 1972 saw to it the posthumous publication of his work The Palearctic-African Bird Migration Systems , which was almost complete with the death of the author.

Monk organized and edited the BOU's Checklist of Birds of Britain series with regional or national avifaunas, which he helped promote from its founding in 1976 through 1988, and he oversaw the publication of the first ten books. From 1976 to 1990 he was editor-in-chief of the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club and in 1992 published the volume Avian Systematics and Taxonomy for the centenary.

Monk also produced a series of articles on the bird life of Goring-on-Thames and Streatley for a local newspaper, which were republished as a book in 1997 under the title Birds for all Seasons: Chronicles from the Thames Valley and illustrated by Robert Gillmor .

Monk was closely associated with the British Ornithologists' Union (BOU). In addition to his work for the Ibis magazine, he held all management positions, with the exception of the honorary treasurer. From 1967 to 1972 he was honorary secretary, from 1978 to 1982 as vice-president and from 1983 to 1987 as president. In 1988 he was awarded the Union Medal of the BOU. In 1966 he was a member of the British Executive Committee for the International Ornithological Congress at Oxford and the scientific subcommittee. Monk was also a member of the governing body of the British Trust for Ornithology from 1958 to 1960. From 1965 to 1968 he was vice chairman and from 1968 to 1971 chairman of the British Ornithologists' Club .

literature

• John E. Pemberton: Who's Who in Ornithology. Buckingham Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0-9514965-8-9 , p. 254
• Neil Bucknell: Obituary James Francis Monk (1915-2014) In: Ibis No. 157, 2015, pp. 428-429