 He was honorary editor of "Archives of Natural History" (the journal of the Society for the History of Natural History) between 1999 and 2012, and was honorary editor of "Heathers" (yearbook of The Heather Society) for 23 years until 2017.Nelson was educated at Portora Royal School (Enniskillen), and obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in botany at the Aberystwyth University.He then moved to Australia where he obtained a PhD from the Australian National University (Canberra) in 1975, for his studies into the taxonomy and ecology of "Adenanthos".