Les Stocker, who has died aged 73, was an important friend to Britain’s wildlife, and to hedgehogs in particular. He began the process of giving wildlife care a solid foundation in this country, and founded the first wildlife hospital, Tiggywinkles, in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire.
Before Les began his work in the 1970s, the most common reaction of the veterinary profession to a wildlife casualty was to put an injured animal to sleep, but now there is a range of innovative approaches to the most obscure problems – from repairing birds’ beaks with glue to stitching on a toad’s tongue following a collision with a lawnmower. Les had to re-teach the toad how to use its tongue to catch insects.
At first, rescuing wildlife and patching it up in his Buckinghamshire garden shed was something Les, with his wife, Sue, fitted in around his life as an accountant. By 1983, all thoughts of juggling work and wildlife had ceased and Les set up the Wildlife Hospital Trust. The following year, there was a massive influx of hedgehogs weakened by drought, and a hedgehog-only ward, named St Tiggywinkles after the Beatrix Potter character, arrived in 1985. Over the years the entire wildlife hospital, which moved to a purpose-built unit in Haddenham in 1991, has become known simply as Tiggywinkles.
Les’s memoir, Something in a Cardboard Box (1989), encouraged many other people to try their hand at making a difference. Caroline Gould, who runs the Vale wildlife hospital near Tewkesbury, says: “I had always wanted to work with wildlife, to help fix the mess that we humans make. It gave me, and many others, permission to try.”
There is also a teaching element to the work of Tiggywinkles, with students from a wide variety of academic backgrounds given the opportunity to study for City & Guilds diplomas in animal care. It is vital that the experience developed at the hospital is shared, because, until Les started helping wild animals, there was no information available. Over the years the veterinary team at Tiggywinkles has pioneered treatments for animals from hedgehogs to badgers, toads and kestrels, and continues to publish best practice. This information is regularly updated in the wildlife veterinary manual Practical Wildlife Care, first published in 2000.
The hospital is not called Tiggywinkles on a whim – 30% of the 10,000 casualties that arrive at the facility each year are hedgehogs. The expertise that has been developed by Les and his team has helped hundreds of hedgehog carers around the country to assist these vulnerable animals with greater confidence.
His work was recognised with a Rolex Enterprise award in 1990, and the following year he was appointed MBE for services to wildlife. Les had no formal veterinary training but was recognised by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons as an honorary associate in 2002.
Les was born in Battersea, south-west London, and his access to wildlife as a boy was limited to safaris on Wimbledon Common, and the books of inspirational writers such as Gerald Durrell. After leaving Emanuel school, he became an accountant and also had a stint running an electrical engineering company.
While giving me a tour of Tiggywinkles in 2008, Les took me into a room that looked as scrubbed and polished as any human hospital. On the table was a badger, and the person working on its mouth explained that he was doing root-canal surgery. The dental surgeon was a volunteer from Harley Street in London, more used to peering into the mouths of humans. This collaboration was indicative of Les’s innovative approach to animal healthcare. The hospital now has one vet employed full-time and a consultant on call. They rely entirely on donations to continue their work.
What thrilled me most was Les’s Hedgehog World, a museum devoted to artefacts from a wide range of eras and cultures, from the ancient Egyptians to modern-day computer games.
Les is survived by Sue (nee Gee), their son, Colin, and grandchildren, Amelia and Alexia. Colin now manages the trust and the hospital.
• Leslie Stocker, wildlife campaigner, born 31 January 1943; died 16 July 2016
