John Cloudsley -Thompson
Post-war, John went to Cambridge University and was appointed to a lectureship at King's College London.
In 1960 he became Professor of Zoology at the University of Khartoum. He was fascinated by creatures that were able to survive desert conditions. Scorpions, centipedes, spiders and woodlice were his speciality, but he was not averse to crocodiles or tortoises. When one crocodile escaped its enclosure he found that the locals did not share his enthusiasm; the police shot the reptile.
John later became Professor Emeritus at Birkbeck College, University of London, and wrote over fifty books. He was also president of the British Arachnological Society, the British Society for Chronobiology and the British Herpetological Society. In 1993 he won the Peter Scott Memorial Award for outstanding services to our understanding of natural history.. John died in 2013, aged 92.