The man missing from Sir David Attenborough's side as he turns 100: 'You don't get over it'

When Sir David Attenborough celebrates his 100th birthday on May 8, he will no doubt receive well wishes from his many fans in celebrity and royal circles.

The English born-broadcaster has been at the forefront of educating the public about the natural world for more than 70 years thanks to his numerous documentary series, and he is also a tireless environmentalist.

But among those whom Attenborough will likely miss most when he marks his centenary is his older brother, the celebrated actor and filmmaker Lord Richard Attenborough, who died in 2014.

Let's look back at their lives and the close bond they shared.

Early years

Sir David Attenborough was born on May 8, 1926, in Middlesex, England, almost three years after Richard, who arrived on August 29, 1923. They also have a younger brother John, who was born in 1928.

The three boys spent much of their childhood in the College House located on the campus of the University College in Leicester, where his father, Frederick, was the principal from 1932 to 1951.

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Their mother, Mary, was a philanthropist and social activist who was also a founding member of the National Marriage Guidance Council, now known as Relate.

During World War II, their parents fostered two Jewish refugee girls from Germany via the Refugee Children's Movement. They later adopted the girls after learning their parents had died.

One of the girls was also instrumental in supporting David's pastime by gifting him a piece of amber that contained prehistoric insects.

That same piece of amber was later the focus of an episode of his series Natural World.

As a child, David collected fossils, stones and natural specimens.

When David was about 10, he and Richard attended a lecture by Archibald Belaney, who was also known as 'Grey Owl'. The Canadian conservationist – who claimed to be part Native American but this was later found to be false – had authored a number of books and was on a speaking tour of the UK.

It remained a core memory for both brothers, with Richard telling The Independent in 2006, "My brother, Dave, got the book signed and marched out with it under his arm, and I've never been able to get that book off him to this day. Possession is nine-tenths of the law, and the bugger won't give it to me". 

The lecture also sparked something in both brothers. For David, it prompted his lifelong fight for conservation, while decades later, Richard directed the film Grey Owl, starring Pierce Brosnan.

While promoting the film, Richard said the lecture had a profound effect on David, who was "bowled over by the man's determination to save the beaver, by his profound knowledge of the flora and fauna of the Canadian wilderness and by his warnings of ecological disaster should the delicate balance between them be destroyed".

"The idea that mankind was endangering nature by recklessly despoiling and plundering its riches was unheard of at the time, but it is one that has remained part of David's own credo to this day."

Early signs of ambition

Both boys, and their younger brother, attended Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester.

Richard was still at school when he showed an interest in acting. He played Lucius in a 1937 production of Julius Caesar at Leicester's Little Theatre.

The theatre manager helped coach Richard before his successful audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). He moved to London but his drama training was interrupted about a year later when he was conscripted into the Royal Air Force.

After undergoing initial pilot training, he was seconded to the Royal Air Force Film Production Unit at Pinewood Studios in England, which trained combat cameramen, produced films and documented RAF activities.

He rose to the rank of sergeant, took part in several operations over Europe, and starred in the unit's film Journey Together before the war ended in 1945.

Meanwhile, David won a scholarship to study geology and zoology, and obtained a degree in natural sciences before being called up for national service, and spent two years in the navy.

Forging careers

After the navy, David edited children's science textbooks for a publishing company. In 1950, he applied for a job as a radio talk producer with the BBC.

He was unsuccessful, but his resume caught the eye of the head of the new factual broadcasting department of BBC television service.

After three months' training, he joined the BBC fulltime and worked as a producer before he was chosen to host the three-part series Animal Patterns, which aired in 1953. This was followed by another series, Zoo Quest.

He later declined joining the BBC's new Natural History Unit to front his own Travel and Exploration Unit, and later studied a postgraduate degree in social anthropology.

In 1965, he became Controller of the new BBC Two. He oversaw the schedule, and brought snooker to the BBC in the form of the TV show Pot Black.

He was also instrumental in tennis balls being made in yellow so they would show up better on TV.

He became director of programs across both BBC channels in 1969 and several years later, was in the running to be Director-General of the BBC. Unsure what to do, he phoned Richard for advice, before confessing he did not want the job.

Instead, he left the director of programs role to concentrate on making the highly successful natural history series Life on Earth, which was first broadcast in 1979.

It was followed by The Living Planet and The Trials of Life, and a host of other 'Life; series.

Meanwhile, after the war, Richard threw himself into acting, both in film and on stage.

But it wasn't until 1963 that he appeared in his first big Hollywood film, The Great Escape, as RAF Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett opposite Steve McQueen and James Garner.

He went on to star in a number of other wartime films, including Guns at Batasi, which earned him a BAFTA for Best Actor, and The Flight of the Phoenix.

He won back-to-back Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe Awards for The Sand Pebbles and Doctor Dolittle. But after a role in the 1979 film The Human Factor, he stepped away from acting to work as a producer and director because he wanted a greater say in the films he made.

It paid off. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for the 1982 film Gandhi, and also received a Best Picture Oscar for producing the film.

He made the musical A Chorus Line and the anti-apartheid film Cry Freedom, and directed and produced the 1992 film Chaplin, and the following year's Shadowlands.

He returned to acting in the 1993 film Jurassic Park, playing park operator John Hammond, and reprised the role in the 1997's The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

He also played Kris Kringle in the 1994 remake of Miracle on 34th Street.

Richard received a knighthood in 1976 for services to film, and became Lord Attenborough in 1993 after receiving a life peerage, while David was knighted in 1985 for services to broadcasting and was later appointed a Knight Grand Cross.

In 2006, they both became distinguished honorary fellows of the University of Leicester their father once led.

Supporting each other through tragedies

On Boxing Day, 2004, Richard's eldest daughter, Jane Holland, whom he shared with his actress wife Sheila Sim, was killed in the tsunami that struck Khao Lak, Thailand, where she was holidaying.

Also killed was his 15-year-old granddaughter, Lucy, and his daughter's mother-in-law. Another granddaughter was badly injured. but survived, as did his grandson.

As with most other times in their lives, notably, when David lost his beloved wife of 47 years, Jane, in 1997, following a brain haemorrhage, the brothers relied on each other to get through the tragedy.

At the time, they lived less than one kilometre apart in neighbouring suburbs of south London.

Richard had lived in his famed home, known as Old Friars, since 1949. Two years later, David moved nearby.

He told The Mirror in 2015 how they came to live so close to each other.

"I visited [Richard]. It was a great place, so I found a place nearby. I lived half a mile from him and we saw quite a bit of one another."

'Terrific teacher'

During a 2008 interview with The Guardian, Richard said his brother was, more than anything, a terrific teacher.

"What Dave's really doing on the box is teaching you, and in the most skilful, almost surreptitious way, he plants information," he said.

He also revealed they were "identical, pretty well" and shared a love of dirty jokes.

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"I adore him. We get on so well because basically we have a fourth-form sense of vulgarity," he said.

Devastating loss

Richard died in 2014, at the age of 90, after a long battle with ill health that began in 2008 when he suffered a stroke that left him confined to a wheelchair.

Five months after this death, David told The Mirror he would never get over the loss.

"You don't get over these things. You accommodate them, you deal with them, but you don't get over them," he said.

"I last saw him a week or so before he died. He couldn't talk, he couldn't walk. Of course he was a shadow of his former self.

"He'd damaged his brain. All people who've sustained those kinds of injuries... of course they change. [But] he was a very dear brother and he is missed.

"My only regret is that he's not here any more. The worst moments of your life are these intimate personal bereavements."

During a 2014 interview with Radio Times, David admitted to one regret – that audiences did not get to see how funny his brother was.

"We just spent all our time roaring with laughter – and that didn't get much of an outlet in his feature films. I mean, Christmas time, you know, we just sat around, roaring with laughter," he said.

His brother's death also made him accept his own mortality.

Then aged in his late 80s he said, "I think anybody in their 80s is bound to think that they're coming to the end of things.

"You've got to drop off the bar sometime. But that makes me think I ought to do more rather than less."

And do more he did, with David continuing to work right up until now. But sadly, as he celebrates his 100th birthday, it will be without his beloved brother by his side.

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