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He was appointed MVO in 1958 and later knighted as a KCVO in 1983 on the Royal Yacht Britannia, to mark the conclusion of Queen Elizabeth's Official Visit to Mexico. He was appointed GCMG for his work at the UN in 1988.
Spying at U.N. headquarters debate
When Clare Short, former international development secretary in Blair's Cabinet, said that British intelligence bugged the office of Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, Tickell refused to comment on the accuracy of Short's claim, saying he had a continuing duty of loyalty to governments past and present and told the BBC, "What I would say is I would not be surprised if in New York there is a great deal of listening all over the place from one country to another, and I don't know whether it really makes very much difference. My conscience is quite clear about these matters and I would not think it necessarily a bad thing at all if it is in the national interest." Tickell added, "Our friends and allies may indeed be doing something like that themselves."
Tickell also criticized Short for resigning from her position of Secretary for International Development in protest of Tony Blair's entry into the Iraq War in May 2003 and reprimanded her: "your prime loyalty is to your employer and, indeed, to the interests of the country."[4]
He was President of the Marine Biological Association from 1990 to 2001. From 1996 until August 2006 he was chancellor of the University of Kent when Sir Robert Worcester took over the position. He was director of the Policy Foresight Programme[5] of the James Martin 21st Century School[6] at the University of Oxford (formerly the Green College Centre for Environmental Policy and Understanding) and Chairman Emeritus of the Climate Institute, in Washington D.C. He has many interests, including climate change, population issues, conservation of biodiversity, and the early history of the Earth.
Margaret Thatcher credited Tickell with persuading her to make a speech on global climate change to the Royal Society in September 1988 (though the speech was written by Thatcher and George Guise).[7]
A man of strong environmental convictions, he was described as having been influential in Britain, although his environmental message did not always travel as easily abroad, particularly to the United States. His 1977 book Climatic Change and World Affairs argued that mandatory international pollution control would eventually be necessary. Despite his non-scientific background, he was internationally respected as having had a strong grasp of science policy issues. He was the recipient, between 1990 and 2006, of 23 honorary doctorates.[3]
He was the president of the UK charity Tree Aid,[9] which enables communities in Africa's drylands to fight poverty and become self-reliant, while improving the environment. He was also a patron of population concern charity Population Matters, (formerly known as the Optimum Population Trust),[10] and told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the ideal population for Britain could be around 20 million.[11] As a member of Lord Rogers' Urban Task Force, Tickell counselled against spreading cities saying that we need denser living, that young adults should not expect to leave home straight away, and that older relatives could live in "granny flats".[12]
Personal life and death
Sir Crispin lived in a converted barn in the Cotswolds.[13][full citation needed] He married Chloe Gunn in 1954 but the marriage was dissolved in 1976.[2] He had two sons and one daughter from this marriage. The following year, he married Penelope Thorne.[2] His main recreations included climatology, paleohistory, pre-Columbian art, and mountains.[1] His son is Oliver Tickell, former editor of The Ecologist.
Tickell died from pneumonia on 25 January 2022, at the age of 91.[14]
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