Franklyn Hugh Perring PhD, OBE (1 August 1927 – 11 October 2003) was a British naturalist, regarded as "one of the most influential botanists and nature conservationists of the 20th century".
This was a landmark publication, produced for the Botanical Society of the British Isles (BSBI) in 1962, and which laid the groundwork for future national and local biological recording schemes across Britain.
Encouraged by his uncle Stanley Perring, a biologist and teacher, it was there that he developed his interest in natural history which was to shape the course of the rest of his life.
Following national service in the army, which he spent in Ireland, Malaya and India, Perring enrolled for a degree in natural sciences at Queens' College, Cambridge.
[6] Perring subsequently collaborated with Peter D. Sell on a Critical Supplement to the Atlas of the British Flora, which was a separate publication, mapping the more difficult plants to identify, such as the hawkweeds, whitebeams and mints.
[7] In 1964, Perring moved to the recently established Nature Conservancy Experimental Station at Monks Wood near Huntingdon, whose role included studying the effects of pollution on wildlife.
[7] In addition to launching and promoting many other species recording schemes, Perring was jointly responsible for compiling another innovative work.
He lived on the edge of Oundle and was secretary to the nearby church council of St Rumbald's, Stoke Doyle, where he successfully influenced the churchyard's management regime so that became a flower-rich meadow.
He was survived by his wife Margaret and daughter Emma, as well as by Neil, a son from a previous marriage to the late Yvonne Matthews.