Royal Society For The Protection Of Nature history

1894 W H Hudson elected Chairman of Committee (i.e. council).

1898 June: Office moves to 3 Hanover Square, rented from the London Zoological Society.

1900 First legacy received - £25.

1903 April First issue of Bird Notes and News, the first regular publication for members.

1905 Watchers' Committee established.

1909 Office moves to 23 Queen Anne's Gate.

The first land bought was an 18-acre meadow in 1928.

1930 The purchase of Cheyne Court, Romney Marsh, announced, the RSPB's first nature reserve.

1943 Junior Bird Recorder's Club (JBRC) founded.

In 1947, Minsmere was made a reserve and avocets – once extinct in the UK – bred at both Minsmere and the nearby Havergate Island.

1949 Havergate becomes a reserve.

1953 March Offices move to 25 Eccleston Square.

June: Duchess of Portland accepts the office of president and remains so until her death in 1954.

Bee-eaters breed in the UK, in County Durham, for the first time since 1955.

1959 Osprey hide at Loch Garten opens to public - 14,000 visitors in six to seven weeks.

1962 Education Officer appointed.

1965 Young Ornithologists' Club (YOC) launched (formerly the JBRC), together with its magazine Bird Life.

1968 Following the establishment of the Charities Commission, RSPB becomes a registered charity on 29 March.

1971 Wales regional office established.

1976 Ian Prestt appointed as director.

1982/85 Woodland Bird Survival Campaign, a £1 million appeal.

1985 March: The Eric Morecambe Memorial Appeal launched.

In 1987, the Royal Society for Protection of Nature (RSPN) was established as a citizen-based NGO devoted to the conservation of Bhutan’s unique environment.

1989 RSPB celebrates its centenary.

1993 RSPB becomes a Partner of BirdLife International, the global partnership formed to join bird and conservation organisations worldwide.

1997 RSPB Phoenix reaches 38,000 teenage members.

RSPB Hope Farm celebrates its 10th anniversary with a three-fold increase in the farmland bird index since 2000

2001 Big Garden Birdwatch became the biggest bird survey ever undertaken in the UK with more than 29,000 contributors.

2004 RSPB Scotland celebrates its centenary.

2007 Sutton Fen became the 200th RSPB reserve.

Red kite re-introduction programme starts.2009 UK Marine and Coastal Access Act came into force after years of campaigning.

2012 Our programme ‘Birds without Borders’ is launched focussing on birds migrating between Europe and Africa.

2014 Skydancer – our project to raise the profile of hen harriers in northern England won a National Lottery Award as Best Education Project

2017 The Albatross Task Force has been so successful that black-browed albatross has recently been downgraded to ‘Least Concern’. Argentina has announced new measures to introduce bird-scaring ‘Tori lines’, which are predicted to save 9,000 albatross lives a year.

2019 RSPB marks its 130 year anniversary!