Leslie Pine

Leslie Gilbert Pine (22 December 1907 - May 15 1987) was a British author, lecturer, and researcher in the areas of genealogy, nobility, history, heraldry and animal welfare. He was born in 1907 in Bristol, Avon County, England and died in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk in 1987. He was the son of Lilian Grace Beswetherick and Henry Moorshead Pine (a tea merchant).

From 1935 to 1940 he served as an assistant editor at Burke's Peerage Ltd. During World War II he was a member of the Royal Air Force, serving in North Africa, Italy, Greece, and India; he retired with the rank of Squadron Leader. After the war and until 1960, he was Burke's executive director. Pine edited Burke's Peerage, 1949-1959; Burke's Landed Gentry (of Great Britain), 1952; Burke's Landed Gentry (of Ireland), 1958; and, Burke's Distinguished Families of America, 1939, 1947. He also edited The International Year Book and Statemen's Who's Who, 1953-1960; Author's and Writer's Who's Who, 1948, 1960; Who's Who in Music, 1949; and, Who's Who in the Free Churches, 1951.

A graduate of London University, he became a Barrister-at-Law, Inner Temple, in 1953. Pine was a member of the International Institute of Genealogy and Heraldry, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, a Fellow of the Ancient Monuments Society, a Life Fellow of the Institute of Journalists, a Freeman of the City of London, and a Liveryman of the Glaziers' Company.

He was managing editor of a British hunting magazine, Shooting Times, from 1960 to 1964. He later authored an important book highly critical of sport hunting, After Their Blood, in which he wrote: "It is our duty as men and women of God’s redeemed creation to try not to increase the suffering of the world, but to lessen it. To get rid of bloodsports will be a great step toward this end."

His books include:


 * Trace Your Ancestors, Evans (1953)
 * They Came With The Conqueror: A Study Of The Modern Descendants Of The Normans (1954)
 * Heraldry and Genealogy: Teach Yourself (1957)
 * Orders of Chivarly and Decorations of Honour of the World (1960)
 * Ramshackledom, A Critical Appraisal of the Establishment (1962)
 * Heraldry, Ancestry And Titles: Questions And Answers (1965)
 * The Story of Surnames (1965)
 * The Story of Heraldry (1952, revised 1966)
 * After Their Blood : a Survey of Blood Sports in Britain (1966)
 * Tradition and Custom in Modern Britain (1967)
 * Genealogist's Encyclopedia (1969)
 * Story of Titles (1969)
 * Princes of Wales (1970)
 * International Heraldry (1970)
 * Heraldry and Genealogy (1970)
 * The Highland Clans (1972)
 * The History of Hunting (1973)
 * Sons of the Conqueror: Descendant of the Norman Dynasty (1973)
 * The New Extinct Peerage, 1884-1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant & Suspended Peerages with Genealogies and Arms (1973)
 * The Middle Sea: Short History of the Mediterranean (1973)
 * American Origins (1980)
 * A Dictionary of Mottoes (1983)
 * A Dictionary of Nicknames (1984)