Ian Wallace

Donald Ian Mackenzie Wallace (14 December 1933 – 4 November 2021), known as Ian Wallace, D.I.M. Wallace, or by his initials DIMW, was a British birder, author and artist.

Early life

Wallace was born on 14 December 1933 in Norfolk, England, to Scottish parents. He was educated at Loretto School, near Edinburgh. Early in the 1950s, he undertook National Service with the King's African Rifles in Kenya. and was a contributing author to The Birds of the Western Palearctic.

In 1963, Wallace was among a party of birders, led by Guy Mountfort and including Julian Huxley, Papers from the expedition are in the United Kingdom's National Archives. He identified at least four species previously unknown in Nigeria.

He was the Honorary Life President of Flamborough Ornithological Group (since 2000), and of Flamborough Bird Observatory.

Wallace appeared as a guest on BBC Radio 4's Saving Species, discussing his October 1960 observations of the visible migration of birds over London, on their 50th anniversary.

He was described as "one of the very top ornithologists in the UK", "one of the great names of British bird-watching", by the BBC as "a pioneer of ornithology [in the United Kingdom]",

Wallace lived in Staffordshire. He died on 4 November 2021, at the age of 87.