PIONEERING naturalist George Montagu has been remembered with the unveiling of a blue plaque on Knowle House, in Fore Street, Kingsbridge.

George Montagu was born in 1753 in Wiltshire and in 1770 he joined the army as an Ensign in the 15th Regiment of Foot.

He resigned his commission as Captain in 1777 but rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Wiltshire Militia.

He married Ann Courtenay in 1779 and settled in Wiltshire. In 1798 he left his wife and moved to Kingsbridge where he wrote his two volume Ornithological Dictionary.

He also had an interest in marine and freshwater natural history, and in 1803 published his Testacea Britannica, a History of British Marine, Land and Freshwater Shells.

George Montagu died of tetanus in June 1815 after stepping on a rusty nail at his home. He is buried in Kingsbridge cemetery.

Elizabeth Fishman approached Kingsbridge Town Council about applying for a blue plaque to mark Montagu's former residence.

For more on this story, see this week's Kingsbridge & Salcombe Gazette