Sir Hugh Francis Ivo Elliott, 3rd Baronet, was born in India on 10 Mar 1913, the elder son of Sir Ivo Elliott. He was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford, Eastbourne College and University College, Oxford, where he was an active member of the Oxford Ornithological Society. From 1937 until 1961 he worked as a colonial civil servant, mainly in Tanganyika, but he also spent three years as Administrator of Tristan da Cunha, 1950-1952. He carried out much ornithological field work in these countries, first by collecting and later by observation, and contributed papers on the birds of the regions. In 1953 he was awarded an O.B.E.

Upon retiring from the colonial service in 1961, he was appointed Commonwealth Liaison Officer for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), based in Switzerland. In 1962 he also took on the role of Acting Secretary General of the IUCN and became Secretary General in 1964. Then in 1966 he changed role to become Secretary of the IUCN's Ecology Commission until 1970. He served on the committee of the British Ornithologists' Union, as Honorary Secretary, 1962-1966, Vice President, 1970-1973, and President, 1975-1979. He was a Trustee of the British Museum (Natural History), 1971-1981, and Chairman of the British Section of the International Council for Bird Preservation, 1980-1981. He died on 21 Dec 1989.

Biographical note written with reference to Who's Who & Who Was Who and obituaries in Ibis, 132(4), 1990, pp.602-621, and British Birds, 83, Jul 1990, pp.272-274.