Richard Fortey, 1946-2025. Anne Purkiss/The Royal Society.
Richard Alan Fortey was born on 15 February 1946 in Ealing, West London, the son of Frank Fortey, who ran two fishing tackle shops, and his wife Margaret (formerly Wilshin) the elder of two children. His father, who had moved to the city from rural Worcestershire, was recalled by Fortey as a font of knowledge on natural history, particularly fish, but a rather less successful businessman. At one point the family had a house in Ealing as well as two shops, as well as land by the River Lambourne in Berkshire, with a caravan where Fortey recalls spending much of his youth. However, Fortey senior apparently omitted to pay tax on his businesses, leading to the loss of both the family home and the land in Berkshire, and the family moving into a flat above one of the shops.
Richard Fortey recalled finding his first fossil, an Ammonite, while on a family holiday to Dorset when he was about ten. He attended Ealing Grammar School for Boys, which offered a geology O level, including a course which included a field trip to Wales, during which he discovered his first Trilobite, a discovery which foreshadowed his future career. Fortey displayed talent in many fields while at school, but was advised by his headmaster to pursue a career in science.
While preparing to sit exams for a scholarship to Cambridge University, Fortey's father was killed in a car crash. Despite this, Fortey won his scholarship, going on to study Natural Sciences, with a specialism in geology. At the end of his second year as an undergraduate, Fortey took part in an expedition to Spitsbergen Island, off the north coast of Norway, during which he and another, older student were left at a remote location with supplies, a riffle to fend of Polar Bears (Fortey never saw one), and no way to contact the outside world. During this expedition, Fortey collected several hundred fossil Trilobites, a collection which would later become the basis for his PhD (the project was originally intended to be the other student's but he performed less well academically).
Richard Fortey graduated in 1968, having completed a dissertation on Trilobites under the supervision of Harry B Wittington, one of the world's leading experts on the group, and was awarded a first class degree in Natural Sciences. On 2 October 1968, he married his first wife, Bridget Thomas. In 1970 Fortey was awarded an MA by Cambridge University, and took on his first job, as a Research Fellow at the Natural History Museum, specialising in Trilobites, a role which he described as having become fortuitously available following the resignation of another palaeontologist.
In 1970, Fortey was awarded a PhD bu the University of Cambridge, for his thesis, Stratigraphy, Palaeoecology and Trilobite Faunas of the Valhallfonna Formation NY Friesland, Spitsbergen, again written under the supervision of Harry B Wittington. The same year, he took part in a second expedition to Spitsbergen, this time under the leadership of palaeontologist David Bruton.
In 1973, Richard Fortey became a Senior Science Officer at the Natural History Museum. In 1974 his first marriage ended in divorce. On 21 June 1978 he married his second wife, Jacqueline Francis (generally known as Jackie), a book editor and, later, an author. Also in 1978 he became a Senior Principle Science Officer at the Natural History Museum, and published his first book, Early Ordovician (Arenig) Stratigraphy and Faunas of the Carmarthen District, South-West Wales, co-authored with Robert Owens of the National Museum of Wales.
In 1980, Fortey published his first book as a solo author, The Ordovician Trilobites of Spitsbergen, then in 1981, a humorous book, The Roderick Masters Book of Money-Making Schemes, or How to Become Enormously Wealthy with Virtually No Effort, under the pen-name Roderick Masters. In 1982 co-authored a second humorous book, Bindweed's Bestseller, under the name WC Bindweed, which was in fact a collaboration with his wife Jackie and the literary agents Heather and David Godwin. In 1982 Fortey published the first of his popular science books, Fossils: The Key to the Past.
In 1986 Fortey was awarded a DSc by the University of Cambridge. In 1988 he became a Merit Researcher and Senior Palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum. In 1989, he made his first television appearance, in an episode of David Attenborough's Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives, a four part series about fossils. In 1990 he published his only book specifically aimed at children, The Dinosaur's Alphabet, which illustrations by Josh Rogan.
In 1991, Richard Fortey was made Visiting Professor of Palaeobiology at the University of Oxford. In 1993 he published his second popular science book, The Hidden Landscape, about the geology of Britain and how it has shaped the society built upon it, which was nominated for the Wildlife Trusts' Natural World Book of the Year. In 1996 he was awarded the Lyell Medal by the Geological Society of London, and in 1997 elected to the Royal Society.
In 1997 Fortey published his third popular science book, Life an Unauthorised Biography, describing the first four billion years of life on Earth, which was nominated for the Rhône-Poulenc Prize, and listed as one of ten Books of the Year by The New York Times. The following year saw the publication of a more academic title, Arthropod Relationships, which Fortey co-edited with Richard Thomas, an aracologist at the Natural History Museum.
In 2000 Richard Fortey was awarded the Frink Medal for British Zoologists by the Zoological Society of London. In 2001 he published a fourth popular science book, Trilobite!: Eyewitness to Evolution, which was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize (now the Baille Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction). In 2002 he was appointed Collier Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Technology at the University of Bristol (a single year appointment). In 2003 he won the Lewis Thomas Prize for writing about science, and co-edited the volume Trilobites and Their Relatives: Contributions from the Third International Conference, Oxford 2001 with Philip Lane and Derek Siveter. In 2004, Fotey published another popular science book, Earth: An Intimate History, which was again nominated for the Rhône-Poulenc Prize.
In 2006 Richard Fortey retired from the Natural History Museum. In the same year he was awarded the Michael Faraday Prize for the public communication of science by the Royal Society, and the Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society of London. In 2007 he was elected as president of both the Geological Society of London and the Palaeontographical Society (both single year positions). In 2008 he published Dry Store Room No 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum. The same year he was awarded the Raymond C Moore Medal for Paleontology by the Society for Sedimentary Geology.
In 2009 Fortey retired from his position at the University of Oxford. In the same year he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature for his works of popular science, making one of a very small number of people ever to have been made fellows of both the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Literature. In 2010 Fortey appeared in the David Attenborough documentary First Life, with the two travelling to the Atlas Mountains to film a hunt for Trilobites.
In 2011 Fortey was appointed President of the Fungus Survey of Oxfordshire, in recognition of his long-term hobby, the study of Mushrooms. In the same year he published another book, Survivors: The Animals and Plants That Time Has Left Behind, on the subject of living fossils. In 2012 he presented a three-part TV program based upon this book, Survivors: Nature’s Incredible Creatures, the first of a series of collaborations with BBC Four.
In 2013, Fortey presented two further TV programs, The Secret Life of Rock Pools and The Magic of Mushrooms. In 2014 he was awarded the Lapworth Medal by the Palaeontological Association, the highest medal the society awards, given in recognition of a highly significant contribution to the science of palaeontology by somebody who has produced a substantial body of research and been of service to the scientific community.
In 2016 Fortey presented another program for BBC Four, Nature’s Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution, on the subject of island biogeography. In the same year he published another book, The Wood for the Trees: The Long View of Nature from a Small Wood, concerning a patch of Beech woodland he had purchased with the proceeds of his television appearances. This year also saw him awarded the Paleontological Society Medal, which is given by the Paleontological Society in recognition of eminence in the field of palaeontology.
In 2021 Richard Fortey published his autobiography, under the title A Curious Boy. In 2023 he was appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the New Year Honours for services to palaeontology and geology. In 2024 he published his final book, Close encounters of the Fungal Kind: In Pursuit of Remarkable Mushrooms. In the same year he was awarded the Fungal Outreach Award by the British Mycological Society, in recognition to his contribution to that science.
Richard Fortey died on 7 March 2025, following a short battle with cancer. He was survived by his wife, Jacqueline, and children Dominic, Rebecca, Julia, and Leo.
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