Eric Arthur Simms, DFC (24 August 1921 – 1 March 2009)[1][2] was an English ornithologist, naturalist, writer, sound recordist, broadcaster and conservationist,[1][2] as well as a decorated wartime Bomber Command pilot/ bomb-aimer.
He won a scholarship to Latymer Upper School[1] and in 1939 began to read history at Merton College, Oxford,[1][3] where he also took up bird ringing[1] and joined the University Air Squadron, and, without completing his studies, was sent for aircrew training in Canada and the United States in 1941.
He was called up, joining the Royal Air Force in 1941[1] and by 1943 was a Leading Aircraftman, and was then commissioned as a pilot officer on probation in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve on 19 March 1943,[4] serving as a bomb aimer and second pilot in Lancaster bombers,[1] in which he flew 27 raids over Germany.
[1] He then worked for the BBC, initially as a wildlife sound recordist,[2] before making more than 7,000 radio broadcasts and hundreds of television appearances.
Simms also appeared in Sir John Betjeman's 1973 TV documentary Metro-land,[2] about the Metropolitan Railway line running northwest out of London.