The son of the explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott and the sculptor Kathleen Scott, Peter Scott was one of the most versatile Englishmen of his generation, being an accomplished artist, ornithologist, international sportsman, conservationist, broadcaster and naval officer. As a painter, his precisely observed works reflected his wide knowledge of the natural world and he is best known for his depictions of wild fowl, often flying against atmospheric skies and landscape.
He started to paint geese and ducks while an undergraduate at Cambridge and studied art at Munich State Academy and the RA Schools. From 1933 he exhibited at London galleries including Ackermann & Son Ltd and the Royal Academy. He founded the Society of Wildlife Artists in 1964 and was their first president.
During the Second World War he served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and was awarded the DSC and Bar and was thrice Mentioned in Dispatches. A yachting enthusiast from an early age, he was part of the UK team at the 1936 Summer Olympics, winning a bronze medal in sailing a one-man dinghy. He was also a British gliding champion in 1963.
He was the Director and founder of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge, Gloucester, where he lived for many years and was also a co-founder and the first chairman of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), for which he designed the famous panda logo and campaigned endlessly for endangered species. A great friend of fellow artist Keith Shackleton MBE (1923-2015), the two travelled to Antarctica together as members of the naturalist team aboard the Lindblad Explorer, the first ice working exploration passenger vessel. In 1973 he was knighted for his work in conservation.
As a broadcaster he became a household name and presented the BBC’s first ever natural history programme live from his Slimbridge home in 1953. His natural history series, Look, ran from 1955 to 1969 and included the first natural history film to be shown in colour, The Private Life of the Kingfisher (1968), which he narrated. He wrote and illustrated several books including his autobiography, The Eye of the Wind (1961).
A major retrospective of his art was held Cheltenham Art Gallery in 1989 and examples can be found in many notable collections including the Ulster Museum in Belfast, the Imperial War Museum in London, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery and the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin.