David Armitage Bannerman
# David Armitage Bannerman

David Armitage Bannerman OBE, MA, SD (Cantab), Hon. LL.D. (Glasgow), FRSE, FZS (27 November 1886 – 6 April 1979) was a British ornithologist. From 1919 to 1952 he was Curator of the British Museum of Natural History (now called the Natural History Museum, London).

## Biography

He was the son of David Alexander Bannerman.

He was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire, before going to university.

After graduating from Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1909, Bannerman travelled extensively in Africa, the West Indies, South America and the Atlantic Islands.

Rejected on health grounds by the military, Bannerman served as a stretcher-bearer with the Red Cross for four years in France during World War I, earning the Mons Star. He was then employed, part-time, at the Natural History Museum, until his retirement in 1951, having twice declined the directorship of the British Museum. He was chairman of the British Ornithologists' Club from 1932 to 1935, having edited their Bulletin from 1914–1915 and was Vice President of the British Ornithologists Union and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

He married twice: in 1911 he married Muriel Morgan(d.1945) and much later in life, in 1952, he married Winifred Mary Jane Holland.

From 1952 to 1979 he farmed in Dumfriesshire.

He also wrote for Ibis.

