History

The Surbiton and District Bird Watching Society was formed in 1954.

The chief “driving force” behind the founding of SDBWS was Hockley Clarke who, by 1954, was well known as a writer on countryside matters as well as editor of his magazine “Birds and Country”. Hockley was the Honorary Organiser, and, during the early years of the Society’s activities, he was responsible for the preparation and distribution of information sheets, bulletins and programmes of events, and also for the organisation of indoor meetings and field outings.