Eric Simms, who died on 1 March, 2009, was a British naturalist best known for broadcasting on the BBC during a 40-year career.

He explored the country’s wildlife on the radio in his long-running Countryside Programme (1952-90) and Nature Notebook on the BBC World Service.

He made films for the BBC Schools TV Service during the 1960s and wrote a dozen books on British birds.

He was known for ushering in several innovations in wildlife broadcasting technology.

Eric Simms was born on 24 August, 1921, in Kensington. He read history at Oxford and while at university he trained as a pilot. During the war he flew bombing raids over Germany with the RAF.

After the war he took up a teaching post in Stratford-upon-Avon before joining the BBC’s wildlife sound recording projects where he was the first British broadcaster to use magnetic tape, parabolic reflectors, radio links and hydrophones.

He also made the first recordings of badgers and birds communicating with their un-hatched chicks.

In the 1990s he retired to Lincolnshire and set up an award-winning nature reserve near the A1. He was married to Thelma Jackson from 1943 until her death in 2001 and they had an adopted son and daughter.

Upon hearing of Mr Simms’ death, nature presenter David Lindo, aka The Urban Birder, said: “I heard some sad news tonight. Eric Simms, one of my natural history heroes died a fortnight ago. I remember reading his Birds of Town & Suburb as a teenager and realising that I was indeed an urban birder. He was a major inspiration for me.”