Mathew Frith was an urban nature conservationist who died aged 64 from a glioblastoma. He left a national legacy championing urban nature, pioneering citizen science, protecting wildlife sites, and improving public green-space access. He joined London Wildlife Trust staff in 1989 and was warden of Sydenham Hill Wood (1990–95), managing volunteers and urban woodland. He became urban adviser at English Nature in 2000, helped the Urban Green Spaces Taskforce, and revised national standards for equal access. He co-founded Neighbourhoods Green at the Peabody Trust in 2002, later held senior roles at LWT, lectured at UCL Birkbeck, advised multiple agencies, and was appointed MBE in 2023.
In 2002, he joined the Peabody Trust, where he co-founded Neighbourhoods Green, a landmark 15.6m programme to improve life for its residents across 70 housing estates. Drawn back to LWT in 2009, he served successively as director of policy and research, deputy chief executive and director of conservation. He lectured at UCL Birkbeck, and advised the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, the Green Flag scheme, and the mayor of London's Rewilding Taskforce.
He was born in Purley, Surrey, to Margaret (nee Searle) and Edward, an insurance underwriter, and grew up in south Croydon with his siblings, Toby and Penny. He went to Trinity school of John Whitgift in Croydon, having won a scholarship at 11-plus. Early childhood involved watching butterflies emerge from pupae hanging from the lid of the family television and exploring the cool, chalky, hazelnut-covered Croham Hurst Woods.
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