Reginald Ernest Moreau

Reginald Ernest Moreau, (29 May 1897 – 30 May 1970), was an English civil servant who worked as an accountant in Africa and later contributed to ornithology. He made studies of clutch size in nesting birds and compared the life-histories of birds in different latitudes and was a pioneer in the introduction of quantitative approaches to the study of birds. He was also a long time editor of the ornithological journal Ibis.

Moreau was born on 29 May 1897 near Norbiton Gate at Kingston upon Thames. His father worked in the stock exchange while his mother's family ran a baker's business in Kingston. The family name was derived from an ancestral French immigrant who had moved to Bayswater as a bookseller. In his autobiographical note published in the Ibis upon his death, he notes that nobody in his family had any academic interests or an interest in natural history. He went to a local preparatory school and became interested in birds through Cherry Kearton's books With Nature and a Camera and Our Bird Friends. He however did not relate to the birdlife around him. His secondary schooling was at the Kingston Grammar School. Around this time he injured his right wrist and had to learn to write with his left hand. His father was hit by the open door of a speeding train and the injury led to a nervous breakdown with periodic episodes of manic-depression. The burden of earning and care of the family now went to Moreau's mother but in 1907 they moved from Kingston to Rowledge on the edge of Alice Holt Forest and then in 1913 to Farnham. In his teens he began exploring the neighbourhood on bicycle and through the books of William Henry Hudson took an interest in observing the local birds. In 1914 he wrote the Executive Class Examination for entrance to the Home Civil Service and made it into the 99th place among 100 available positions although his bad eyesight and poor health made him nearly fail. He received a posting in September 1914 at a war office and his job was to scrutinize applications for separation allowance. A year later he was posted at the Army Audit Office in Aldershot. The clerical work for the next five years was interrupted by rheumatoid arthritis. His family doctor suggested that he needed a "complete change". He applied for a transfer to the Army Audit Department in Cairo and got one in 1920.

Around this time he was a member of the RSPB through which he met Michael John Nicoll who was the director at the Giza Zoological Gardens. Due to security problems in Egypt, he had to wear military uniform, something he was very uncomfortable with. The work was only from 8 AM to 2 PM after which he would often go to the hot springs at Helwan. His health improved rapidly. Nicoll, a member of the BOU, was a regular contact but the two never made any field excursions together. Moreau however began to make many weekend excursions. A bout of paratyphoid hospitalised him briefly during September 1920 and during this period he observed a number of migrant birds. He later hired a donkey to make weekend trips. There were fears that lone British travellers would be captured by Egyptian nationalists but he found only friendly company and picked up Arabic. In one of his jaunts to a distant wadi he came to meet C. B. Williams, an entomologist at the Egyptian agriculture ministry. Williams became a close friend and he was introduced to scientific ideas and the two made many excursions into the desert. Williams also encouraged Moreau to publish his bird notes in the Ibis journal, with help in preparing the manuscripts. The drafts were typed by Williams' wife. At Alexandria one March, he spotted a lady picking up buttercups among the wheatears and larks that he was observing and found her knowledgeable about birds. After meeting her, Winnie, a couple more times, he married her in June 1924 at Cumberland. The young couple preferred to live at Maadi close to Wadi Digha where they kept a pet raven and conducted experiments to see if the plumage colours of larks were genetically inherited. They had a daughter whom they named Prinia after a small bird, the Graceful Prinia (Prinia gracilis). A Graceful Prinia had built a nest in the ventilator of the bell tent that was the Moreau's first marital home. Moreau made trips around Africa and wrote on birds as well as letters to the New Statesman. He also wrote some fiction such as the The Temple Servant under the pen name of "E. R. Morrough" as, being a civil servant, he was not allowed to publish books. They travelled around Africa and in 1928 C.B. Williams moved to Amani in Tanganyika as Deputy Directory of a research station there and recommended that Moreau should take up work in the accounts department.

...
Wikipedia