Jane Goodall is an expert on wild chimpanzees. Recognized for her ground breaking discoveries about their behavior – she discovered that chimpanzees make tools, eat and hunt for meat, and have similar social behavior to humans – she completely transformed our understanding of our closest relative in the animal kingdom.

Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall was born on April 3, 1934, in the United Kingdom’s capital city, London.

Her father, Mortimer Herbert Morris-Goodall, was a telephone engineer who became a racing car driver for Aston-Martin. Her mother, Margaret Myfanwe Joseph, was a secretary who later became an author, writing under the name Vanne Morris-Goodall. Both parents were from relatively wealthy families.Jane’s first home was in the London suburb of Chelsea.

She was looked after by a nanny for much of her childhood.

When she was about a year old her father gave her a toy chimpanzee called Jubilee. The toy had been made to celebrate London Zoo’s first chimpanzee birth in captivity.

Although, as she got older, she received other toys, Jubilee remained Jane’s favorite forever.

Her family moved house several times while Jane was young. In 1935, when she was a year old, the family moved out of London to the town of Weybridge. Her father’s career as a racing driver was beginning to flourish and the move took them close to the famous Brookland’s racing circuit.

In May 1939 the family moved again, this time to the seaside town of Le Touquet in northern France. Her father had now become a full-time racing driver and, with most of his races in continental Europe, this location was more convenient than anywhere in England. It also gave his daughters an opportunity to become fluent French speakers.However, their stay in France was brief. Within a few months of their arrival, World War 2 had begun. The family fled from France just before the war started, moving into Jane’s paternal grandparents’ large home in the English coastal town of Folkestone.

No matter where she happened to be living, Jane’s childhood was happy. From an early age she loved animals and she enjoyed exploring gardens and observing the wildlife she found – anything from butterflies to slugs. Her family took in several pets, including a dog and a tortoise. At the age of five Jane went missing in Folkestone and a search was started for her. When she was eventually found, it turned out she had been sitting for several hours in the hen house. She had wanted to find out how chickens laid eggs and had sat waiting for one to come into the hen house so she could see for herself how it actually happened.

While they were in Folkestone Jane’s father, who was 32 years old, joined the army. The family then moved to the small town of Hythe.

Jane’s father was posted to France in 1940, at which point the rest of the family – Jane, her mother, and younger sister Judith – moved to her grandmother’s home in the beach resort of Bournemouth.

Despite the war, the bombs she heard exploding, the blackouts, the food rationing, and her father’s absence, Jane lived contentedly in Bournemouth. She loved nature and collected many pets including racing snails, caterpillars, a lizard, guinea pigs, a hamster and a canary.

In 1945, aged 11, she began high school at Uplands School for girls.

At the age of 12, she formed a nature club called the Alligator Club. It had three other members: her sister Judy and two of their friends. Jane organized club events and wrote a club magazine.

As school continued, Jane became increasingly uncomfortable and unhappy.

Jane was a happy, lively girl, and it’s clear from the quote that she did not enjoy the regimented life school offered her.

She yearned to be at one with nature and with animals, but there was no place in school for these longings.

Towards the end of school, Jane’s interest in English and biology picked up and she began enjoying learning again. She won two school prizes for essay writing.

Her exam grades were good enough to go to university, but her family could not afford itShe continued reading nature books and dreaming of being with Africa’s magnificent wildlife.

Jane Goodall’s groundbreaking discoveries and her conservation efforts have been recognized by a large number of honors, including:

Gold Medal of Conservation from the San Diego Zoological Society in 1974
J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize in 1984
Albert Schweitzer Medal of the Animal Welfare Institute in 1987
National Geographic Society Centennial Award in 1988
Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences in 1990
Benjamin Franklin Medal in 2003
Dame of the British Empire in 2003
French Legion of Honor in 2006
Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2011

In 1950, Jane Goodall’s parents divorced. They had seen little of one-another following the outbreak of World War 2. Her father had begun army life with the rank of private. He was eventually promoted to lieutenant colonel and spent nearly all of his time during and after the war on overseas postings.

In 1964, Goodall married the photographer and filmmaker Hugo Van Lawick. They had one son, named Hugo. In 1974, she divorced her first husband and, in 1975, married Derek Bryceson, member of Tanzanian parliament and Director of Tanzania’s National Parks. He died in 1980.

All her life Goodall suffered face blindness – the official name is prosopagnosia – difficulty distinguishing and remembering faces. She only discovered this was a medically recognized condition when she was about 60.

Jane Goodall continues to work tirelessly in the interests of chimpanzees and natural habitats.