Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 5th Earl of Cranbrook


Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 5th Earl of Cranbrook , styled Lord Medway until 1978, is a British zoologist, biologist, naturalist and peer. Since 1956, he has been active in the fields of ornithology, mammalogy, and zooarchaeology and has influenced research and education in Southeast Asia. His career focus was on the tiny birds that build edible nests.
Cranbrook was born in St George Hanover Square, the eldest child of John Gathorne-Hardy, 4th Earl of Cranbrook, also a zoologist, and his second wife, Fidelity Seebohm, daughter of Hugh Exton Seebohm and sister of Lord Seebohm. He was educated at Eton College and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He earned his PhD in 1960 from the University of Birmingham.
A tropical biologist, Cranbrook worked in Malaya for three years before taking up residence at his family seat, Great Glemham House, Great Glemham, Saxmundham, Suffolk.
He sat as a Conservative peer in the House of Lords, and left the House in November 1999 as a result of the House of Lords Act 1999; he was not a candidate to retain a place in the House as an elected hereditary peer.

Marriage and issue

On 9 May 1967, he married Caroline Jarvis.
Cranbrook and his wife have three children: