Cherry Kearton, a yeoman farmer of Swaledale, Yorks, was also a local preacher. His son, John Kearton, also a yeoman farmer, had two sons who became naturalists and pioneers of wild life photography.

Richard Kearton (1862-1928) was born at Thwaite, Swaledale on 2 January 1862, and worked for Cassell & Co., until 1898. He died on 8 February 1928. His brother Cherry Kearton, born at Thwaite on 8 July 1871, died on 27 September 1940.

Both brothers were prolific authors and as naturalists showed great determination and ingenuity in their pioneering use of hides and photography. Cherry was the first to illustrate his books on wild life around the world cinematographically and has been described a 'the David Attenborough of his age'. He was also an official photographer in World War I. The Royal Geographical Society's Cherry Kearton Medal and Award was named after him. Among their earlier books was With Nature and a Camera, being the adventures and observations of a field naturalist and an animal photographer (1898).

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