Profession: ecologist

Huxley wanted to be remembered not as the notable scientist he was, but as a generalist. His grandfather T. H. Huxley gave him natural history lessons, and took him to meet Hooker. His aunt Ward helped look after him (and brother Aldous) after his mother’s death. He mentored Lorenz and Tinbergen, co-authored a book with Haldane, and joined Wells on a part-work. He agreed with Teilhard de Chardin about religion, gave Moore an elephant’s skull, and with Needham put the ‘S’ in UNESCO. Most of these and many more were friends; his correspondents ranged from Britten to Lévi-Strauss, Leakey to Warburg.