Scott, Peter Markham (Sir)

14th September 1909 - 29th August 1989

Sonia South was an actress who had joined the the band of women working narrowboats during the Second World War. After the war she remained on the canals and married a working boatman named George Smith. They worked the pair of boats Cairo and Warwick. She was an early member of the Inland Waterways Association and later married L T C Rolt. In 1986, IWA 40th Anniverary year, she accepted an Honorary Membership of theHe was born in London, the only child of Antarctic explorer Sir Robert Falcon Scott. Famous as an ornithologist and painter who made frequent television appearences. He was educated at Oundle and Cambridge University, graduating from Trinity College in 1931. Like his mother, Kathleen, he was a talented artist and had his first exhibition in London in 1933. From his father he may have inherited his love of water, representing his country in sailing at the 1936 Olympic Games and serving in the navy during World War II. In 1942 he married his first wife Elizabeth Jane Howard. They divorced in 1951.

In 1947 he became the first Vice-President of the Inland Waterways Association, a position he held until 1986 when he resigned because of a clash of interests and priorities over the proposed restoration of the River Derwent (Yorkshire). He was also active in the inland waterways cause cruising extensively on his narrowboat Beatrice including a pioneering trip across the Mersey. He was a member of IWA Council up until 1967.

In 1948, he founded the organisation with which he was ever afterwards closely associated, the Severn Wildfowl Trust (now the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust) with its headquarters at Slimbridge by the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal. He wrote and ilustrated several books on the subject, including his autobiography, The Eye of the Wind (1961). He was knighted in 1973 Association and was elected Vice-President of in 1993.