Bernard Acworth

Captain Bernard Acworth DSO (3 February 1885 – 16 February 1963) was an English submariner, writer, evangelical Christian and creationist.

Acworth was trained at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, becoming a submariner during the First World War and being awarded the Distinguished Service Order. After retiring from the Royal Navy, he became a journalist and unsuccessful parliamentary candidate (in 1931 as a Liberal at Pontypridd and as an Independent at Putney in 1942). In 1932 Acworth, Douglas Dewar, Lewis Merson Davies and Sir Ambrose Fleming launched the Evolution Protest Movement (later named the Creationist Science Movement), which was dedicated to opposing the teaching of evolution as a scientific fact. Acworth also corresponded with C. S. Lewis regarding his views on the incompatibility of evolution and Christianity.

Acworth published some idiosyncratic views on biological matters. He claimed that birds, and other aerial migrants such as butterflies, do not migrate purposefully over particular routes, but wander aimlessly, their apparent routes a result of the prevailing winds at different seasons. He also believed that parasitic cuckoos are hybrids between male cuckoos and the females of the host species.