My father, Paul Bell, who has died aged 81, worked as an NHS dentist for more than 30 years, but his lifelong passion was for natural history. He had a detailed knowledge of the wildlife of Shropshire and was eager to learn about other environments through observation and reading. He was a member of the Shropshire Wildlife Trust council from 1976, served as trust president from 1988 to 1993 and remained a vice-president until recently.
In the 1970s, Paul started the task of rewilding the four-acre field at our family home near Betton Moss – a pioneering conservation initiative back then and one which he continued working on until his death. This enhanced local biodiversity, resulting in the return of barn owls and increases in other birds, mammals and invertebrates, such as land snails and butterflies, including brimstones. He added ponds and erected nest boxes and refuges of all sizes, for birds and for bats, native bees and small mammals. He also designed and planted a small wood there.
Through his presentations to groups, photographs and writings, he aimed to influence others. He championed conservation-focused land use as an alternative to formal country gardens or high-intensity farming. Paul co-authored a chapter on the Shropshire Wildlife Trust in Wildlife in Trust, a book published in 2012 to celebrate 100 years of nature conservation in the UK and he had a monthly column, Country Comment, in the local newspaper for 34 years.
Paul and his twin brother, Ben, were born in Penkhull, Staffordshire, the sons of Benjamin Bell, managing director of Brittains paper mill, and his wife, Elsie (nee Moores). Both boys developed an early love of nature, and during childhood they kept many animals; Ben recalls a tame magpie landing in an orange jelly and a neighbour calling the police after a pet squirrel ran up her skirt.
Paul went to Newcastle high school and trained as a dentist at the University of Edinburgh before going into practice in 1966, first in Tunstall, Staffordshire, later in Market Drayton. The following year he married Jean Kimmel, and they went on to have two daughters – me and my sister, Kate.
His family will remember Paul for his love of fun and nonsense, and also for his ability to sit in patient silence, watching and listening, attentive to the slightest sound or movement of wildlife around him.
He is survived by Jean, his children, two grandsons, Louis and Emil, and his brother, Ben.
