The bank manager who published the first-ever book on Derbyshire’s birds fled to Australia after stealing from his own bank, was caught and became a jailbird briefly – then returned Down Under to become one of that country’s most famous ‘birdmen’. Steve Shaw relates his remarkable story.
THE COLOURFUL AND ENERGETIC Frederick Bulstrode Lawson Whitlock was born in Nottingham on June 3, 1860, the eldest of seven children. It is unclear why he should have received such an unusual pair of middle names, as his mother Mary’s maiden name was neither Bulstrode nor Lawson, but Taylor. He attended Loughborough Grammar School…