Richard Adams
Richard Adams was born on 9 May 1920 in Wash Common, near Newbury, Berkshire, England, the son of Lillian Rosa (Button) and Evelyn George Beadon Adams, a doctor. He attended Horris Hill School from 1926 to 1933, and then Bradfield College from 1933 to 1938. In 1938, he went to Worcester College, Oxford, to read Modern History. In July 1940, Adams was called up to join the British Army. He was posted to the Royal Army Service Corps and was selected for the Airborne Company, where he worked as a brigade liaison. He served in Palestine, Europe and the Far East but saw no direct action against either the Germans or the Japanese.
Richard Adams
In 1982, Adams served one year as president of the RSPCA. Besides campaigning against furs, Adams wrote "The Plague Dogs" to satirize animal experimentation (as well as government and tabloid press). He also made a voyage through the Antarctic in the company of the ornithologist Ronald Lockley. Just before his 90th birthday, he wrote a new story for a charity book, "Gentle Footprints", to raise funds for the Born Free Foundation.