Peter Chalmers Mitchell
| Peter Chalmers Mitchell | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
23 November 1864 Dunfermline, Scotland |
| Died | 2 July 1945 (aged 80) |
| Fields | Zoology |
| Known for | Founding Whipsnade Zoo |
Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell, CBE, FRS, DSc, LLD (23 November 1864 – 2 July 1945), zoologist, was Secretary of the Zoological Society of London from 1903 to 1935. During this time, he directed the policy of the London Zoo and created the world's first open zoological park, ZSL Whipsnade Zoo.
Peter Chalmers Mitchell was the son of the Rev. Alexander Mitchell, a Presbyterian minister in Dunfermline, Scotland. Mitchell gained an MA at the University of Aberdeen, and moved to Christ Church, Oxford, where he read for natural science, specialising in zoology. After success in the honours examination of 1888, he was appointed University Demonstrator in Zoology.
In 1896, he was the anonymous author of an article in the Saturday Review entitled "A Biological View of English Foreign Policy" which proposed the inevitability of a final battle between Britain and Germany, in which one would have to be destroyed. Having acknowledged his authorship during World War I, he still declared himself "unrepentant" about it in a letter to The Times in May 1939, describing the article as "prophetic".
Despite a tenure of 32 years, Mitchell was not the longest-serving Secretary of the Zoological Society. His predecessor, Philip Lutley Sclater, had been in office over forty years, from 1860 to 1902. Mitchell was succeeded by Julian Huxley.
Mitchell's brainchild, Whipsnade Park, was opened in 1931 on the Dunstable Downs, in the heart of Bedfordshire. Whipsnade is an open air zoo in the countryside, where animals occupy large enclosures rather than cages. The park is involved in a variety of conservation activities.
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