Ken and his wife Linda were honoured together as recipients of the 1875 Awards for 2016. They became involved in the HNHS shortly after arriving in Hertfordshire in 1973. During their 43 years in the county they have played a major role in shaping and developing the Society.

Ken became involved in the Bird Club first, a natural fit given his role as an ecologist with the RSPB. Over the years he was both Chairman of the club and scientific committee and bird recorder. Ken played a key role in the production of three key books on Hertfordshire?s birds - the Hertfordshire Breeding Bird Atlas with Chris Mead in 1982, the Breeding Birds of Hertfordshire in 1993 and, most recently, the Birds of Hertfordshire in 2015.

Ken and Linda have been tireless in their championing of the core value of the Society ? the recording of the county?s flora and fauna. To that end they have worked together, monitoring the woodlands of Hertfordshire and the birds they support. With the initiation of the Heartwood Forest project in 2008 they saw an opportunity for a major monitoring project and worked with the Woodland Trust and other volunteers to survey and then monitor wildlife as the woodland was created and developed. In recognition of that work they were given national awards in 2015.

In the summer of 2016, they moved from their home in Welwyn Garden City to Chichester in West Sussex accompanied by the deep gratitude of everyone involved in the Society and warm good wishes for the future.