THE RENOWNED wildlife artist, author, international competitor in skating, sailing and gliding, wildfowler and broadcaster Sir Peter Scott became the father of modern conservation, founding the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust in 1946. He was born in 1909, the only child of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the celebrated polar explorer, and his wife, the artist and socialite Kathleen Bruce. Scott never knew his father, who left when he was only a few months old on the illfated Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole in 1910, perishing two years later. A last letter from the Antarctic encouraged his wife to ‘make the boy interested in natural history’ and Scott’s early mentors included Sir Ray Lankester, former director of the Natural History Museum, and his two godfathers: JM Barrie, author of Peter…