Obituary - Alec Bull
Alwyn (Alec) Bull died on August 8, 2023, eighteen days before his 96th Birthday. He was one of East Anglia’s foremost naturalists and one of the country’s leading experts on brambles.
Alec was born and raised in Hitcham, Suffolk where his father owned a farm. He went to school in Bury St Edmunds but left at 14 to help on the farm during the war. The farm was mostly arable but, during the war, Alec had to look after the small dairy herd ‘because dad didn’t like cows.’ His interest in the natural world can be traced back to the mid-1940s when, in his later teens, he heard on the radio about an ornithology club for young people. It piqued his interest and he decided to join. His initial interest was in birds, but that same year it expanded to plants when there was ‘a tremendous show of dog roses’, the attractive flowers that indicate that summer is arriving. Armed with the Observer’s Book of Flowers, cigarette cards and Typhoo Tea cards to aid identification, he went on to develop a great expertise in the natural world.
He also joined SNS‘There was a piece in the East Anglian Daily Times in 1944 by Claude Morley, founder of the Suffolk Naturalists’ Society, asking for information on a certain subject. I sent some notes. He wrote back and asked if I would like to be elected to the society. I did and I’ve been a member ever since.’ The following year he was contributing to these transactions with notes on the Botany at Hitcham listing orchids he had seen on old meadows at the farm. He described the extraordinary survival of ‘two four-acre meadows white with ox eye daisies and with purple knapweed, pink restharrow, yellow rattle and above all, hundreds of fragrant orchids. One of the two, sheltered from the north by a wood full of oxlips, also had early purple and spotted orchids, twayblades, the occasional bee orchid and a small colony of frog orchids. All ploughed up in 1949.’ (see also 1977, A century of change and 2019, Notes from Claude Morley’s Suffolk).
He married Rita in 1947, when he was 20 and lived first in Icklingham and then Timworth where he worked as a cowman. He continued working with cows on farms in Suffolk and Norfolk, including another 7 years at Hitcham 1953-60, before ending
up in East Tuddenham in Norfolk. He published a couple of memoirs about farming life: boots in 1976 described life at Hitcham working without heavy machinery; and 1999 about his work as a cowman. He retired from farming in 1992 and became even more active in recording flora and fauna. He maintained his interest in birds and served as regional rep for the British Trust for Ornithology for 29 years. He took on the role of BSBI Recorder for VC 27 East Norfolk in 1985 and, in 1990, embarked on a ten-year project with Gillian Beckett to update the county’s plant records. To get an idea of the amount of work this involved it is worth reading An Exercise in Co-operation, Alec’s Presidential address to the Norfolk & Norwich Nat. Soc. in 1999, the year they completed publication of the excellent Flora of Norfolk. The large format Flora included innovative coloured maps showing soil types and soon became the standard which other counties (including Suffolk!) aimed to beat.
Alec was a keen batologist, publishing numerous papers, some jointly with his mentors Alan Newton and Eric Edees, in local and national journals. He became BSBI referee for the genus Rubus, covering south-east England, and was responsible, in whole or in part, for naming six new brambles from East Anglia, two of which have been recognised as being of national significance, and a third of regional significance. Once the Norfolk Flora was complete, he generously led his able team of recorders south of the border where they contributed greatly to the Suffolk survey (Alec personally contributed over 37,000 Suffolk records). He also kindly wrote the section on Rubus in the Suffolk Flora (2010) and, in the same year, published Looking at Brambles – a useful introduction to this difficult group. He was aware that ‘‘Not many people take up brambles. Brambles are too difficult. You’ve got to have the right eye.’ Having followed him in the field as he confidently reeled off Latin names and their relevant characteristics, I can confirm batology is not for the faint-hearted.
He was our oldest, and longest standing, member. A great friend, generous with his knowledge and an endless source of anecdotes.
His enormous contribution to the study of Norfolk’s wildlife, including not just flora, but also birds, fungi, butterflies, moths, dragonflies, and many other insect groups will no doubt be recognised in the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ Soc. journal.
Martin Sanford
Alec Bull. Selected Bibliography
1945. The Botany of Hitcham, in Observations Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 5(4): 210–211.
1965. Lepidoptera at Easton Bavents. Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 13(2): 95–96.
1976. Muck on My Boots - Brick House Farm, Hitcham, Suffolk. Terence Dalton Ltd.
1977. A Century of change. Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 17(3) 220–224.
1980. (with E. S. Edees) A new bramble from East Anglia. Watsonia 13(2): 121–122.
1981. The Brambles of Suffolk – further notes. Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 18(3): 247–248.
1983. Another new East Anglian bramble. Watsonia 14(4): 411–412.
1985. The Rubus Flora of Norfolk and Suffolk. Watsonia 15(4): 361–380.
1988. A new Bramble for Suffolk. Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 24: 79.
1991. Further notes on the Brambles of Suffolk. Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc 27: 32–33.
1995. (with H. E. Weber) Rubus edeesii H.E. Weber & A.L. Bull (Rosaceae), a new bramble species from Britain and Germany. Watsonia 20(4): 345-349.
1995. Eric Edees, Norfolk and Norfolk brambles. Watsonia 20(3): 319–320.
1997. (with A. Newton) Rubus mercicus J. E. Bagnall refound. Watsonia 21(4): 361–362.
1997. The role of forestry plantings in the dispersal of bramble (Rubus L.) species. Watsonia 21(4): 359–361.
1997. (with A. Newton) Rubus pannosus P. J. Mueller & Wirtgen (Rosaceae) in Britain. Watsonia 21(3): 278–279.
1998. Four new species of Rubus L. (Rosaceae) from eastern England. Watsonia 22(1): 97–104.
1999. Lowing Herd. Privately published.
1999. An Exercise in Co-operation (Presidential Address). Trans. Norfolk & Norwich Nat. Soc. 33(1): 1 4–24.
1999. (with G. Beckett and R. Stevenson) A Flora of Norfolk. Privately published.
2001. A new species of Rubus sect. Micantes (Rosaceae) formerly known as a variant of R. criniger (E.F. Linton) Rogers. Watsonia 23(4): 549-550.
2002. Range extensions for Rubus rhombifolius Weihe ex Boenn. and R. babingtonianus W.C.R. Watson in East Anglia. Watsonia 24(20: 224-225.
2002. (with Leonard Bull) Remembering Hobbets. Privately published.
2004. Rubus cromerensis A.L. Bull (Rosaceae) must give way to R. neumannianus Weber & Vannerom which has priority. Watsonia 25(2): 212.
2005. (with A. C. Leslie) A hitherto undescribed bramble Rubus sect. Corylifolii (Rosaceae) of chalky boulder clay in East Anglia. Watsonia 25(4): 419–422.
2009. The status of Rubus babingtonianus W.C.R. Watson (Rosaceae). Watsonia 27(3) 245-246.
2010. (with G. Corne) Looking at Brambles. Flora Facts & Fables.
2010. Rubus section in A Flora of Suffolk. M. N. Sanford & R. J. Fisk pp. 202-208.
2011. A Flora of STANTA. Privately published.
2017. Meet one of East Anglia’s most foremost naturalists. Eastern Daily Press 8th October 2017. https://www.edp24.co.uk/lifestyle/20822484.meet-one-eastanglias-foremost-naturalists/
2019. Notes from Claude Morley’s Suffolk. Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 55: 84–86.
(2023)