William Bernard Robinson King, 1889-1963

Abstract William Bernard Robinson King died on 23 January 1963 as a result of a thrombosis following a comparatively minor operation. To his many friends the obituary notice which appeared in The Times three days later was a tremendous shock, for it notified the death of a man vigorous in mind and body for whom many more years of constructive work seemed to lie ahead. Bill King was a Yorkshireman who never boasted of that fact but who certainly had no regrets about the circumstances of his birth and his association with the Yorkshire Dales. Born on 12 November 1889 at West Burton near Aysgarth, he had both parents and three grandparents who could claim Yorkshire as their native county. His maternal grandmother was a descendant of Dr Hey who founded Leeds Infirmary, but it was on his father’s side that the Yorkshire connexion was so strong. Certainly from as far back as 1640 there is record of the Kings as yeoman farmers in Wensleydale and after his retirement in 1955, King went to live permanently on the land of his ancestors at the hamlet of Worton. As a boy, young King must have been shy and rather lonely, with few companions of his own age and happy to wander alone on the fells pursuing the study of natural history. He had a brother nearly four years his senior but he was accidentally killed at the age of 21. Eventually Bill King went to Uppingham from a local preparatory school, and of his time there he has written that, being of little use at Latin, the authorities had small interest in him; being no good at ball games, the boys had little use for him; and he learnt nothing of importance. Certainly he achieved the School VIII in rifle shooting, but what he enjoyed most were the outings of the Natural History Society and his solitary walks in Wordley Woods.