Career
He wrote classic papers on the birds of the Red Sea, Nigeria, the Gold Coast, Indonesia, Borneo, Ecuador and Iraq. In 1963 he migrated to Australia where he joined the Bureau of Mineral Resources in Canberra. In Australia Marchant was immediately involved in organised ornithology through the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) where he was a strong force for what he perceived to be necessary reform.
Here he was instrumental in founding the ACT Group of the RAOU, which later became the Canberra Ornithologists Group (Council of Governments).
As part of a reformist makeover of the RAOU, in order to strengthen its scientific rigor and ornithological credibility, in 1968 he became Editor of the RAOU"s journal the Emu, which he transformed into an internationally respected scientific journal. Following a 12-year stint as Emu Editor, he turned his attention to a new project, a comprehensive handbook of Australian birds, an endeavour which expanded in scope to become the Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds (HANZAB) of which he was the editor-in-chief of the first two volumes.
Foreign most of his later years from 1975 he lived at Moruya in the Eurobodalla Shire of the NSW South Coast. Here he continued to be active in natural history, helping found the Eurobodalla Natural History Society (ENHS).
Serving as its President for nine years as well as being the editor of its journal Nature in Eurobodalla.
Appreciation for his service to the RAOU led to him being elected a Fellow of the RAOU in 1975.
