Obituary: Bob Saville, 58, naturalist

Bob Saville, a naturalist and entomologist known as the face of Lothian Wildlife Information Centre, has died.

Born on February 9 1952, in Wolverhampton, he was the younger of two sons born to Sydney and Joan Saville.

He went to Wolverhampton Municipal Grammar School, read chemistry at Southampton University and became a Master of Philosophy.

Mr Saville's life in Edinburgh began as a trainee biological recorder with the Scottish Wildlife Trust. As he learned about surveying and recording, he built his knowledge, particularly of plants, bryophytes and lichens, but ended up becoming passionate about invertebrates.

Promoted to team supervisor, he trained many people in the skills and disciplines he had developed and created and managed the first biological records centre for the Lothians, Wildlife Insite. The groundbreaking initiative collected data about the area's wildlife and expanded it through surveys.

When funding for training ran out, Wildlife Insite was passed to the independent Lothian Wildlife Information Centre. Mr Saville was the centre manager and its only member of staff at that time.

He took on every aspect of running the company and developed contracts with local authorities and other bodies in the Lothians to supply biological data and services to help them fulfil their biodiversity duties.

His contribution to biological recording included developing analytical and statistically based methods to use the available data, systems that are now routinely used to scrutinise planning applications for their potential effects on wildlife and to help conserve remaining wildlife hotspots by identifying them as Local Biodiversity Sites.

The LWIC became so effective and successful that it currently covers the Scottish Borders as well as the Lothians and has since become the Wildlife Information Centre.

Dr Alastair Sommerville, chair of the Wildlife Information Centre, said Mr Saville was fundamentally an enthusiast. He added: "He never stopped both enthusing others and investigating some new aspect of wildlife that caught his imagination.

"Certainly there are very few naturalists in the Lothians and elsewhere who do not know Bob either directly or by reputation."

Mr Saville, who took early retirement in April, wrote a number of papers on barkflies, his area of expertise, developed the National Barkfly Recording Scheme and edited the book Dragonflies of the Lothians.

He also had a wide range of other interests including computer games, Pre-Raphaelite artists and, as a guitar player, was a fan of Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix.

He died on 9 September in Edinburgh, aged 58. He is survived by his wife Val, son Paul and brother Chris.