| Activity | Museum Staff: appointed to Department of Zoology 1974; principal scientific officer 1981. Assistant to Museum Director 1987. Resigned 1991.
He attended Thorpe Grammar School, Norwich, and Swansea University in 1962 to read Zoology, Botany and Geology. He was awarded a B.Sc. Hons in Zoology in 1965. During the summer of 1965, he worked in the MAFF laboratories at Lowestoft analysing the stomach contents of plaice caught in the Irish Sea and helped with a latex injection tagging programme of “O” group plaice off Anglesey from R.V. Tellina. Tony studied for his Ph.D. in 1965 under the supervision of Prof. Ernest Naylor at the Marine Biological Station, Liverpool University, Port Erin, Isle of Man and obtained his Ph.D. in 1968 with a thesis entitled “The ecology of some inshore and intertidal Amphipoda”. Tony studied the distribution of shallow-water sand-dwelling species of amphipods throughout the Irish Sea, the correlation of their intertidal distribution with physical parameters, and their rhythmic behaviour monitored using infra-red detection techniques.
Worked in the Department of Zoology, Queen’s University, Belfast between 1968 and 1971. Here he used a 4-channel infra-red detection system coupled with a digital print-out counter to determine the synchronised (zeitgeber) control of rhythmic behaviour in the amphipod Marinogammarus marinus. This behaviour was successfully correlated with neurosecretory activity in the CNS. He also undertook a scanning electron microscope study of the sensory receptors in amphipod antennae at Queen’s and in the Zoology Department at Oxford University. In addition, Tony completed a survey of the amphipods in the shallow-water sand community of Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland.
Departed for New Zealand in 1971 and the University of Victoria, Wellington (1972-1973). In the Department of Zoology, Tony initiated three lines of research: 1. A general survey of the amphipods of intertidal sand, visiting many beaches in the Auckland area, Northland, southern North Island and Stewart Island. As a result of this work, he found six new species. 2. Rhythmic swimming behaviour studies using photo-electric detection equipment to monitor sandy and rocky shore isopods. 3. A series of light trap samples taken in Wellington Harbour to determine diurnal, lunar and seasonal patterns of swimming behaviour in amphipods.
On their return to the UK, Tony took a temporary job teaching biology at Gowerton Comprehensive School, Swansea whilst looking for more permanent employment with a view to continue his research, and was subsequently successful in an application to join the Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History). He joined the Crustacea Section on the 22nd July 1974 as a Senior Scientific Officer. initiated a research programme on the larval development of caridean shrimps.
Tony concentrated on the larval development of British Caridea and successfully reared five species from egg through to the juvenile stages ably assisted by Ann Gurney, publishing a number of papers on morphological descriptions of larvae including appraisals of variation in structural and zoeal stage sequences. He also undertook studies of larval behaviour and investigated the comparative functional morphology of the eye in malacostracan Crustacea Tony was promoted to Principal Scientific Officer on the 1st January 1981.
Wrote for newspapers such as The Guardian, the popular scientific press and his book Basic Marine Biology (also translated into Spanish and Italian). The book was based on a University of London extra-mural course run jointly with the Museum.
1977-1982 he was Recorder of Section D (Zoology) for the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
Chair of the BAAS Recorders’ committee and organised many seminars and workshops.
In 1983 Tony took over from Dr Vaughan Southgate (NHM) as joint Editor of the Journal of Natural History, a position that he maintained until 1989.
April 1987 Tony jointly organised symposium number fifty-nine of the Zoological Society of London with Prof. Phil Rainbow (then Queen Mary College, London, later Keeper of Zoology, NHM) entitled Aspects of Decapod Crustacean Biology.
Elected onto the council of the Zoological Society of London (1999), serving as Vice President from 2002-2004.
Nominated as a trustee of BIOTA, the new development of ZSL.
In 1986 the Department of Zoology was contracted by the Nature Conservancy Council to undertake a preliminary survey of the macro-invertebrate fauna of the shore between Shakespeare Cliff and Abbot’s Cliff within the Folkestone Warren Site of Special Scientific Interest. The faunal survey undertaken by Tony with his friend and colleague Dr David George made recommendations regarding the positioning on the foreshore of the spoil derived from channel tunnel excavations proposed by the Channel Tunnel Group. This survey was a significant step for the Zoology Department because it was the first time that “Contracted Research” was undertaken and it would lead eventually to the formation of a Marine Biological Consultancy Group. Three more biological surveys of the chalky shore outcrops of the UK were managed by Tony and David.
Appointed Assistant to the Museum Director on 1st December 1987. In November 1989 Tony left the Museum to take up a two-year secondment to the Cabinet Office. He briefly returned to the Museum and resigned in October 1991 to be the Departmental administrator for Zoology at Oxford University. He later moved on to University College, London to manage their scientific grants.
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