Retirement of Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell

Abstract

LAST summer it was announced that Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell was to retire from the post he had held for more than thirty years as secretary of the Zoological Society of London (see NATURE, Aug. 25, 1934, p. 280). At the annual meeting of the Society held on April 29, Sir Peter formally vacated the secretaryship and his successor, Prof. Julian S. Huxley, took his place. Sir Henry Mahon and Prof. J. Stanley Gardiner presented Sir Peter with his portrait, painted by Mr. William Nicholson, on behalf of some 1,250 members of the Society; very appropriately, the background of the portrait includes a map of the Whipsnade estate, with the development of which Sir Peter's name will always be associated. The response to the appeal for the portrait was so generous that it has been possible to send each subscriber a reproduction in colour of the portrait and also to present to Sir Peter a personal memento. The Duke of Bedford, president of the Zoological Society, in moving a resolution of thanks to Sir Peter for his many years of active and inspiring service to the Society and to science, stated that whereas in 1902 the Society's Gardens in Regent's Park had 69,500 visitors, in 1934 the number had increased to 1,690,000, while the Society's high reputation as a scientific body has been similarly enhanced. The Society has been a pioneer, under the guidance of Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell, in the improvement of the conditions under which animals are kept in captivity. On the more strictly scientific side, mention should also be made of the valuable investigations carried out by the succession of anatomists, pathologists and other workers who have been encouraged by Sir Peter to study the Society's collections.