Richard and Cherry Kearton

Richard and Cherry were born in the village of Thwaite, North Riding of Yorkshire, England, the second and fourth sons of parents Mary and John Kearton.

The brothers were educated in Muker and Richard was a farmer in Swaledale, Yorkshire, until 1882, then manager of a publicity department at the publishing house Cassell & Co. until 1898.

He made the first phonograph recording of birds (a nightingale and a song thrush) singing in the wild in 1900; took the first film of London from the air in 1908, and the first footage of hostilities in the First World War at Antwerp in 1914.

Cherry and Richard Kearton are perhaps best remembered for the development of naturalistic photographic hides, including the hollow ox of 1900 and the stuffed sheep of 1901.

From 1909, Cherry moved into the field of wildlife documentary film making, shot on visits to Africa, India, Borneo, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.