14 Facts About Hugh Falkus

Hugh Falkus was a British writer, filmmaker and presenter, World War II pilot and angler.

Hugh Edward Lance Falkus was born to James Falkus, a Surrey bank manager, and his wife Alice Maud.

James retired early to a boat, first on the Essex marshes and then in Devon, whereupon Hugh was sent to the Culford School, in Suffolk.

In June 1940 Hugh Falkus' Spitfire was shot down over France and he spent the rest of the war in German prison camps, including Stalag Luft III the Great Escape camp.

Hugh Falkus collapsed unconscious having narrowly survived after swimming over a mile to the shore, before being able to tell his rescuers the location of the accident and its survivors.

Hugh Falkus's wife's remains and one other person's were recovered.

In 1952 Hugh Falkus married Lady Margaret Vane-Tempest-Stewart, second daughter of the 7th Marquess of Londonderry, but the marriage was short-lived.

In 1958 Hugh Falkus married Kathleen Armstrong, daughter of a local farming family.

Hugh Falkus lived with her at Cragg Cottage, Eskdale, for most of the rest of his life, writing about fishing and natural history and making television films on related subjects.

Hugh Falkus wrote, produced and presented a series of The World About Us films for the BBC, and with the Nobel Prize-winning zoologist Professor Niko Tinbergen he made a film about gull behaviour called Signals for Survival which won the Italia prize in 1969, and first prize for the BBC at the 1969 Montreux Film Festival.

Hugh Falkus was still having affairs in his late sixties, upsetting his friends by deserting Kathleen, his wife of 25 years for a woman named Romille.

Hugh Falkus was a controversial and outspoken figure, insisting on being right and bullying people.

Hugh Falkus was awarded the Royal Geographical Society's Cherry Kearton Medal and Award in 1982.

Hugh Falkus died of cancer and bronchopneumonia at his home at Cragg Cottage on 30 March 1996.