"My father, (Clinton) John Dawkins, who has died peacefully of old age, packed an enormous amount into his 95 years. He was born in Mandalay in 1915, the eldest of three talented brothers. John's boyhood hobby of pressing flowers, reinforced by a famous biology teacher ( of ) led him to read Botany at Oxford, and thence to study tropical agriculture at Cambridge and (Trinidad) in preparation for posting to as a junior agricultural officer. He and my mother, Jean Ladner, began their idyllic married life at various remote agricultural stations in Nyasaland before he was called up for wartime service in the (KAR). He wangled permission to travel to Kenya in his own rattletrap car rather than with the regimental convoy, which enabled Jean to accompany him – illegally. John's postwar work as an agricultural officer back in Nyasaland was interrupted when he received an unexpected legacy from a distant cousin. had been owned by the Dawkins family since the 1720s. Cousin Hereward Dawkins, casting around the family tree for a male heir, could find none closer than my father, whom he had never met and who had never heard of him."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Philosophers from EnglandScience authorsNon-fiction authors from EnglandBiologists from EnglandSkeptics
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Richard Dawkins
evolutionary biologist, ethologist, science writer
1941 · United Kingdom
337 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Richard Dawkins →
Related Quotes
"If your pet is dying in pain, you will be condemned for cruelty if you do not summon the vet to give him a general an…"
"The director of a zoo is entitled to "put down" a chimpanzee that is surplus to requirements, while any suggestion th…"
"Evolution too, like embryonic development, is gradual. Every one of our ancestors, back to the common root we share w…"
"The feeling that members of one's own species deserve special moral consideration as compared with members of other s…"
"It is better for the genes of Darwin's wasp that the caterpillar should be alive, and therefore fresh, when it is eat…"
"Wild animals almost never die of old age: starvation, disease, or predators catch up with them long before they becom…"
"The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation. During the minute tha…"
"You know you've won the argument when the only counter argument they can find is that you are white or male or old."
"Eugenics was not inspired by Darwin's natural selection but by ancient agricultural ARTIFICIAL selection. Eugenics is…"
"Don't call him "clock boy" since he never made a clock. Hoax Boy, having hoaxed his way into the White House, now wan…"