Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 5th Earl of Cranbrook, (born 20 June 1933), styled Lord Medway until 1978, is a British zoologist, biologist, naturalist, and peer. Since 1956, he has been active in the fields of ornithology, mammalogy, and zooarchaeology, and has influenced research and education in Southeast Asia. His career focus was on swiftlets and other small Southeast Asian birds, as well as on mammals, including orangutans.
He is the author of Wild Mammals of South-East Asia (1986), Wonders of nature in South-East Asia (1997) and Swiftlets of Borneo: Builders of Edible Nests (2002) and Key Environments: Malaysia (2013), which had a foreword from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Early life
Cranbrook was born in London, the eldest child of John Gathorne-Hardy, 4th Earl of Cranbrook, an archaeologist and also a zoologist, and his second wife, Fidelity Seebohm, daughter of Hugh Exton Seebohm and sister of Lord Seebohm. He was educated at Eton College and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He earned his PhD in 1960 from the University of Birmingham.
Career
A tropical biologist, Cranbrook worked in Malaya, beginning his career as an assistant at Sarawak Museum, Sarawak. He was a senior lecturer in zoology between 1961 and 1970 at University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, and a Jajason Siswa Lokantara Fellow between 1960 and 1961 at Indonesia. After many years working in the far-east, he up residence at his family seat, Great Glemham House, Great Glemham, near Saxmundham, Suffolk.
He succeeded as Earl of Cranbrook upon his father's death in 1978, and sat as a Conservative peer in the House of Lords. He left the Lords in November 1999 as a result of the House of Lords Act 1999; he was not a candidate to retain a place in the House as an elected hereditary peer.
A species of white-toothed shrew, Gathorne's shrew (Crocidura gathornei) is named in his honor.
Marriage and issue
On 9 May 1967, he married Caroline Jarvis, daughter of Col. Ralph Jarvis and his wife Antonia née Meade, a scion of the Earl of Clanwilliam. Cranbrook and his wife have three children: John Jason Gathorne-Hardy, Lord Medway (born 26 October 1968), heir apparent to the earldom, born in Kuala Lumpur Dr. Lady Flora Gathorne-Hardy (born 10 October 1971) Hon. Argus Edward Gathorne-Hardy (born 28 May 1973)