Roland (Bex) Richter was born in Germany to Jewish parents. After his father's death, his mother took a job in the Foreign Office in Berlin where she became secretary to Kurt Hahn, later founder of Salem School in Germany and Gordonstoun School in Moray, Scotland. Bex was educated at Salem, and after taking his Ph.D. at Berlin University he was invited by Hahn to Moray, where he was starting his new school, in 1934.
He taught biology from the school's foundation in 1934, subsequently becoming Head of Biology until his retirement in 1972. A biologist by training, and a naturalist by inclination, he soon found himself roaming the hills and valleys of Northern Scotland, collecting and recording all manner of wildlife as he went. As a result of a lifetime's work in the field he became an expert on the plants and animals of Moray.
A portion from a page of one of
Richter's notebooks relating to the mosses found in Moray. Richter kept copious
notes and lists, and his work on the Bryophytes (Mosses and Liverworts) of this
part of Scotland is of immense importance in increasing our knowledge and
understanding of their distribution here.
A
specimen packet - and some of its contents - from Dr. Richter's Bryophyte
herbarium.
He published works on the Fulmar, Bryophytes (Mosses and Liverworts) and water beetles of Morayshire. He also made local collections of Lepidoptera (Moths and Butterflies), beetles and mosquitoes, many of which are now cared for by the Moray Council Museums Service.
He was a keen ornithologist and was for many years Recorder for Moray for the British Trust for Ornithology. He also served as the local representative of the Botanical Society of the British Isles.
 | The Moray Council gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Mr D Byatt, who supplied biographical details of Dr. Richter. |