Gilbert White

Clergyman and naturalist, born in Selborne, Hampshire, S England, UK. He studied at Oxford, where he became a fellow of Oriel College. He was ordained in 1751, and from 1755 lived uneventfully as curate in Selborne, where he kept a journal containing observations made in his garden. His letters on the subject, written over a period of 20 years, were published as The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789). It has become an English classic: an inspirational naturalist's handbook, it has never been out of print.

Gilbert White (July 18, 1720 – June 26, 1793) was a pioneering naturalist and ornithologist.

White was born at Selborne in Hampshire.

White is best known for his The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789). These letters contained White's discoveries about local birds and animals.

White is regarded by many as England's first ecologist. He said of the earthworm (1770):

Earthworms, though in appearance a small and despicable link in the chain of nature, yet, if lost, would make a lamentable chasm [...] worms seem to be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely without them...

White and William Markwick collected records of the dates of emergence of more than 400 plant and animal species, White recording in Hampshire and Markwick in Sussex between 1768 and 1793. This data, summarised in "The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne" as the earliest and latest dates for each event over the 25-year period, is among the earliest examples of modern phenology.

White's frequent accounts of a tortoise inherited from his aunt in The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne forms the basis for Verlyn Klinkenborg's book, Timothy;

In addition to his publications on Natural History, he also wrote some poems of no great distinction.

His house in Selborne, The Wakes, now contains the Gilbert White Museum, as well as the Oates Memorial Museum, commemorating Frank and Lawrence Oates.

A biography of White, by Richard Mabey was published by Ebury Press in 1986, and won the Whitbread Biography of the Year award.

A documentary about White, presented by historian Michael Wood, was broadcast by BBC Four in 2006.