John Burkett obituary

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/21/john-burkett-obituary

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My father, John Burkett, who has died aged 82, ran a wildlife rescue centre with my mother, Molly, for 60 years, first at their home in Hampshire, then in Lincolnshire. He was also a keen falconer, and in his professional life was an engineer who worked on the Blue Streak rocket project in the 1950s.

John was born in New Eltham and remained in London during the second world war, keeping a doodlebug diary and attending an emergency school in Deptford. It was here that the retired professors who were standing in for evacuated teachers instilled in John his love of wildlife, farming and the countryside – enhanced by time spent at summer harvest camps in Somerset.

After the war, he joined the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, Hampshire, where he met Molly, and progressed to lead the team working on the Blue Streak programme, designed to deliver a rocket capable of carrying nuclear warheads. The programme was abandoned in 1960, before it went into production. John later worked for agricultural engineering companies and for the World Wildlife Fund.

John and Molly's success in raising and releasing songbirds led them to establish a centre at their home, at first in Shalden, Hampshire, to "rescue, repair and release" wild birds and animals. Around 300 creatures at any one time shared the house – visitors might find a little auk on the stairs; a guillemot in the bath; or a peregrine on the lawn.

John became a regular contributor to television programmes, particularly in the late 1950s, and during one of his first appearances lost a smooth snake in the studio. It reappeared on a globe being used by Patrick Moore just as the camera panned in on him, but he managed to carry on without pause.

When the tanker Torrey Canyon ran aground in 1967, causing an oil slick that spread along the Cornish and French coasts, thousands of seabirds were affected. Many were sent to John and Molly, who carried out pioneering work in how best to clean and treat them. The consequent fish bill, however, necessitated the sale of their property in Hampshire and a move in 1970 to Hough-on-the-Hill, Lincolnshire. Molly wrote a series of books about the animals they rescued, including The Year of the Badger (1974).

Reading TH White's The Once and Future King left John with a fascination with falconry that lasted for the rest of his life. One of the birds he trained was filmed by the BBC for The Goshawk (1968) and Molly wrote about his experiences with falconry in High Fly (1967).

John is survived by Molly, me and my sister, Sophie, and two grandchildren, Seth and Kizzie.