Birdwatchers arriving in Hong Kong within the Sixties had been fortunate if they may discover a copy of the e book by Geoffrey Herklots, Hong Kong Birds. It had been revealed in 1953 and was been reprinted quite a few occasions as inventory ran out. It was nothing like a contemporary area information. There have been comparatively few illustrations and even fewer in color. There have been descriptions of the assorted species written by Herklots within the Pure Historical past Museum whereas on dwelling go away in Britain in 1938. His different notes had disappeared whereas he was interned at Stanley throughout the Japanese Occupation. He supposed the e book to drag collectively the notes and articles that had appeared within the Hong Kong Naturalist, a journal he had based and which was revealed from 1930 till 1941. The small pen-and-ink drawings along with the color plates, together with the frontispiece of a Nice Barbet, are by Commander A.M. Hughes OBE RN (Retired). Herklots, famous that Commander Hughes had been stationed in Hong Hong between 1929 and 1931. He had contributed plates to the Hong Kong Naturalist from its first problem in 1930. Herklots famous that the Hong Kong Authorities had made a grant to cowl the price of the color plates, one showing in every problem, for the primary 12 months of publication. Thus, even after he had left Hong Kong, Hughes continued to color the birds he had seen there.
However who was Commander A.M. Hughes? What was his rôle in Hong Kong; what else did he draw and paint and what did he do after being in Hong Kong?
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| The frontispiece of Hong Kong Birds Painted in 1933 |
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| One of many many black-and-white drawings in Hong Kong Birds Widespread Tailorbird |
The very first thing I found that an illustration of naval life that he drew is usually bought by artwork sellers. Artwork sellers additionally attempt to present the dates of start and dying of the artist. Nevertheless, the dates of dying supplied by completely different sellers had been so broad (spanning 1931 to 2001) as to be ineffective. Nevertheless, a date of start of 1900 supplied a superb place to begin for the search of the same old family tree websites and public data, together with naval service data.
ALFRED MARCUS HUGHES was born on 12 September 1900 at Brinkley, 5 miles from Newmarket, Cambridgeshire. He was the son of Mary Charlotte (née Harrison) and Herbert Edgar Hughes, co-founder of Mann, Egerton & Firm Ltd of Norwich, motor and plane engineers (and, by the way, patentee of a picnic tray), and the grandson of Sir Alfred Hughes, ninth Baronet. The Hughes Baronetcy was created in 1773 by George III for Sir Richard Hughes, a naval officer, as was the second baronet. Hughes adopted the conventions of the time in attending naval coaching institutions for 3 years from the age of 13. He handed out of Dartmouth in 1916 and made his method from Midshipman and Sub-Lieutenant to Lieutenant by 1921 aged 20. Throughout that point he served in a number of ships, starting from the battlecruiser HMS Tiger to the sloop HMS Eglantine however there have been no engagements with the enemy whereas he served within the First World Conflict. His superiors famous his pursuits in pure historical past and in drawing. In 1920 he had utilized to hitch the Surveying Service. His request was granted and on 26 June 1921, Lieutenant Hughes was appointed to the bottom grade of assistant surveyor in that service.
In what seems to have been a household custom, Hughes was admitted a Freeman of the Metropolis of London as a Member of the Worshipful Firm of Grocers on 11 January 1922.
Naval data present, generally illegibly, his actions to varied ships and locations, for instance a survey of the River Severn and time in Malta. The private particulars vary from the routine, by means of embarrassing and very embarrassing to terribly embarrassing. By 1929 Hughes was a 1st class assistant surveyor and was promoted to Lieutenant Commander on 10 January 1929, i.e. shortly earlier than his arrival in Hong Kong.
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| HMS Herald |
The survey ship stationed in Hong Kong and energetic all through south-east Asia from 1929 was HMS Herald. Ten years after Hughes left, Herald was broken within the Japanese assault on Singapore and scuttled off Seletar. The Japanese raised her and after restore turned the Heiyo. Nevertheless, below that identify she hit a mine and was sunk in November 1944.
Ninety-five years after Hughes started portray and drawing Hong Kong birds, it’s tough to think about how tough these actions had been. My guess is that he confined his actions to the winter months. Within the warmth and humidity of the summer season—and with out air-con—paint or ink can swiftly be diluted by sweat working down the arm, fingers and fingers to type an ugly blob. Take it from anyone who was there 35 years after Hughes.
On the finish of his posting in Hong Kong, Lt Cdr Hughes returned to the Britain by way of the USA. He travelled throughout the Pacific on NYK Line’s Tatsuta Maru. He arrived in San Francisco on 8 April 1931.
Alfred Marcus Hughes married Hope Frances Pritchard on 6 April 1934 in London.
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| The one {photograph} of Hughes I’ve been in a position to search out is that of his wedding ceremony in 1934 the place he was in Full Gown uniform. It appeared within the native press |
Hughes was given command of HMS Fitzroy, one other minesweeper, like Herald transformed to a survey ship, on 1 March 1934, based on his naval data. Within the capability of captain of the vessel it was additionally famous that he was answerable for the survey work. He was blamed for the lack of the port anchor (‘not working extra cable’). He’s proven as holding the appointment till April 1936. Nevertheless, a secondary supply accessible on-line suggests he took command in August 1933.
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| HMS Fitzroy |
In April 1936, Hughes turned Naval Assistant to Hydrographer of the Navy, Rear Admiral John Augustine Edgell, later Vice Admiral Sir John Edgell KBE, CB, FRS (1880-1962). The Far East although beckoned. Hughes utilized for a submit with the Commissioners of the Port of Rangoon having been knowledgeable by the navy that he was free to use but when profitable must retire on the date of his leaving UK. Thus on sixth November 1936 Commander and Mrs Hughes sailed from Liverpool on board the Bibby Line ship Cheshire for Rangoon whereas the London Gazette recorded that he he been positioned on the Retired Record ‘at his personal request’. That, one might surmise, was the top of his life as a naval officer however as we will see later that was not so.
In 1937 Hughes realised that in his new job he would wish a civilian ticket of Grasp Mariner. This, the navy organized and despatched it out to him. It was in Rangoon that he illustrated his first e book on birds. Bertram Bertram Evelyn Smythies, the (reluctant) creator of Birds of Burma {and professional} forester (1912-1999) defined how the e book happened in his preface to the second version, revealed in 1953:
The primary version of this e book (1,000 copies) was printed in Rangoon in 1940 by the American Baptist Mission Press and bought out by the top of 1941; it was supposed to be a concise information to the birds of Burma, primarily for using area naturalists, to encourage the examine of pure historical past on the whole and of birds particularly…
The e book was initially deliberate in 1937 by Mr. H. C. Smith, I.F.S., who was to rearrange for the illustrations, and Mr. J. Okay. Stanford, I.C.S., who was to jot down the textual content. Not each artist can paint life-like research of birds from stuffed skins (by which I imply, not these examples of the taxidermist’s artwork that you just see within the show-cases of museums, however the tough skins that our common Burmese skinner seems); happily there occurred to be one stationed in Rangoon on the time—Commander A. M. Hughes, R.N., who was working for the Port Fee and had already executed some notable work of Asiatic birds in Hong Kong and elsewhere in earlier years.
The record of birds to be illustrated, and the lay-out of every plate, was determined by Smith and Hughes collectively, and the subsequent downside was to safe the fashions; for to color a chicken you will need to have both a stay mannequin, or a stuffed pores and skin, or a earlier portray. Taking into consideration the truth that there is no such thing as a museum in Burma whence skins might be borrowed, the problem of assembling fashions for every of the 290 birds illustrated on this e book might be appreciated; some birds had been painted from stay examples within the Rangoon Zoo, mainly waders and sport birds; a couple of had been copied from work in different books; however the majority needed to be collected within the fields and the forests and the marshes, by these answerable for the e book, of their spare time.
Some birds down on the record eluded us altogether, and substitutes needed to be discovered; thus the one motive why the comparatively uncommon rufous-bellied hawk-eagle seems on Plate XIX is that it’s a substitute for the pastime, which we couldn’t receive. Others, once I have a look at their portraits now, deliver again reminiscences of lengthy and anxious quests, extending over a 12 months or perhaps two; there was the good barbet, not a uncommon chicken, however a shy one, which we chased unavailingly up and down the slopes of Nattaung for per week and extra with out success; the better adjutant, which fell to No. 4’s, and the choked barrel on the mudflats of the Sittang estuary after days of sweat and glare within the blistering October solar; the masked finfoot, a rarity that we hardly hoped to search out besides by despatching a particular mission to its recognized haunts within the flooded jungles of the Myitmaka drainage, however which gaily swam into Smith’s ken, a lot to his astonishment, in a very surprising place on a back-water of the Pegu river; and there was the unhappy story of the argus pheasant, pleasure of the Rangoon Zoo, which died mysteriously in its cage instantly after its portrait had been painted and was forthwith skinned and stuffed by the artist (roast argus, it was hinted, was scrumptious); and the three vultures, freshly skinned and exuding a foul and sickly odour, are to this present day a vivid and sad reminiscence for the artist’s spouse, who needed to endure them in the home until their portraits had been completed.
When all different means failed an enchantment was made to Dr. C. B. Ticehurst, who despatched out from England the skins required to fill the remaining gaps; and even when the plates had been accomplished there was the problem of protecting them in good situation in a moist, tropical local weather; solely fixed care and a focus by the artist (and frequent use of his spouse’s hair-drier) prevented them from being ruined by the damp. The ultimate disaster was the outbreak of struggle; a few of the plates had been nonetheless incomplete on that date, and had been solely simply completed by the point that the artist needed to go away for England. Thus ended the primary chapter within the story of the plates.
In the meantime Mr. J. Okay. Stanford had been at work on the textual content, however the outbreak of struggle made it unattainable for him to proceed, and I used to be requested to take it over. I really feel positive that he would have produced a extra fascinating e book, for he isn’t solely probably the most competent area naturalists Burma has had, but additionally a gifted author, as his numerous books and papers (ornithological and in any other case) bear witness. Nevertheless, it was a query of writing the textual content quickly or shelving the e book indefinitely, and I subsequently took up the duty on New Yr’s day 1940 and completed it on the seventh October of the identical 12 months, carrying on my regular duties as a forest officer on the similar time.
The uncommon 1st version The e book was on sale by New Yr’s Day 1941, and many of the copies had been purchased by Europeans dwelling in Burma, and left behind by them once they evacuated earlier than the Japanese invasion in 1942. It’s fascinating to file that the Japanese collected as many as they may and shipped them off to Tokyo, the place they housed them within the library of the Royal Veterinary Faculty, later destroyed in an air raid; this info was given to Lord Alanbrooke by a brother of the Emperor of Japan, and handed on to the Bombay Pure Historical past Society, who knowledgeable me. Not many copies had been bought exterior Burma, and the e book turned scarce after the autumn of Burma.
In the meantime, what of the valuable work and the precious blocks used for printing the plates (every plate is printed from a set of 4 copper blocks)? On the nineteenth February (because it turned out, solely two days earlier than the authorities ordered the evacuation of Rangoon) I visited the Mission Press ; the entire place was abandoned, apart from the appearing superintendent (Mr. Crain) ruefully considering the possible lack of a lot useful printing equipment; collectively we searched the constructing and located twenty-one units of blocks stacked collectively in a room, however the remaining eleven units had been to not be discovered, and what turned of them is a thriller to this present day. I took away the twenty-one units and was lucky in getting them out to India, because of Lieut.-Commander E. J. Dunkley of the Burma Navy, who shipped them aboard one in every of his vessels. The lack of eleven units of blocks was severe, however not irreparable, for the blocks might at all times be re-made from the unique work. The place had been the work? They had been in Mr. Smith’s possession, and had been finally rolled up in a bundle and brought out to India by Mrs. Smith when she left Burma by air, as a part of the 30 lbs. of package allowed to evacuees. They got here to relaxation in a Bombay secure deposit, and the twenty-one units of blocks had been saved in my father’s home in Katmandu, the capital of Nepal; and there they stayed until the top of the struggle…
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| From Birds of Burma |
Mrs Hughes not solely had to deal with putrefying vultures in the home and using her hairdryer; their daughter was born in 1939, three months earlier than the outbreak of struggle and whereas Hughes was making an attempt to complete the work. With the specter of struggle, retired naval officers had been being recalled to service.
Hughes’s naval file begins once more on 27 August 1939. He was hooked up to HMS Gloucester II, the shore institution in Colombo and headquarters of the East Indies Station of the Royal Navy. Nevertheless he was nonetheless based mostly at Rangoon, answerable for Naval Management of Transport. In Might 1940 Hughes retuned to UK on the P&O liner Strathallan which had been requisitioned as a troop transport by the federal government. Then after a course at HMS Vernon on mines he was with HMS Badger, the shore institution at Parkestone Quay close to Harwich for obligation below the Captain (Minesweepers). Then he was given his second command, HMS Corfield, a transformed collier, formally designated as a ‘mine destruction vessel’. Such vessels had a big electro-magnet within the bows to set off magnetic mines. It could seem that Corfield operated within the North Sea alongside the coast of Britain.
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| BOAC Clipper Bangor at Poole, Dorset from right here |
Hughes was promoted to Commander (retired) on 12 September 1940 however the data present he continued within the precise rank of Lt Cdr for many of his work. On 17 February 1941 he was appointed Naval Assistant to the Hydrographer of the Navy (nonetheless Learn Admiral Edgell). He then labored within the Topographical Part. In June 1942 her flew on a civilian BOAC flight from Poole to Baltimore on the Boeing Clipper flying-boat Bangor. His go to will need to have been essential since seats on such flights weren’t allotted frivolously. Might it have been related with the Anglo-American invasion of North Africa (Operation Torch) of November 1942? In the summertime of that 12 months the US common employees opposed the plan however the sharing of topographical info on the touchdown websites with the USA st the starting stage might have been an essential motive for his presence.
It’s, by the way, from US Immigration that now we have an outline of Hughes: complexion, truthful; eyes, blue; hair, brown; top 5’ 11”.
In March 1943 Hughes was with the Naval Intelligence Division as Head of Part. The Inter-Service Topographical Division (ISTD) was based mostly in Oxford (the place his son was born in 1944). It was answerable for offering topographical intelligence for future operations.
In March 1944 Hughes was moved to India, to the ISTD station there. For administrative functions he was on board HMS Hathi, a shore station a great distance from the ocean—in Delhi. In these jobs with ISTD he was within the appearing rank of Commander, although he was additionally Commander (retired). I think this was all to do with the arcane methods of the navy in issues of pay and job grading. His work was clearly essential within the advances in opposition to the Japanese in 1944-45 after the tide had been turned in Burma since he was appointed OBE for ‘distinguished providers in South East Asia’. As well as he was awarded the King Haakon VII Liberty Medal by the King of Norway for ‘providers rendered to the Norwegian Excessive Command throughout World Conflict II. He was given ‘unrestricted permission’ to put on this overseas ornament.
Hughes was again on the retired record on 17 February 1946. However he returned to service once more six years later. In September 1922 he was again as a certified hydrographer (‘H Cost’). His re-appointment seems to have been related with the 19-day Train Mariner, the most important NATO train ever held, within the waters off Iceland from 16 September to 4 October 1953. The climate was atrocious. Commander Hughes reverted to the Retired Record—once more and eventually—on 5 October 1953, the 12 months Hong Kong Birds and the second version of Birds of Burma had been revealed.
In 1949 Smythies, the creator of Birds of Burma, was posted to the forestry service in Sarawak. He was persuaded to provide one other e book, this time on the birds of Borneo. It’s clear that the previous workforce of Smythies and Hughes will need to have been a hit as a result of Hughes throughout the late Fifties produced 50 color plates for the e book, The Birds of Borneo, which was revealed in 1960. Smythies wrote:
I used to be lucky in securing as soon as once more the providers of Commander A.M. Hughes, O.B.E., R.N., as artist. He himself has written an account within the Sarawak Museum Journal No. 12 of some elements of the duty (which took 4 years), and of how he turned very in poor health half-way by means of owing to an allergy to the D.D.T. used on the chicken skins.
The e book was extensively acclaimed and thus Hughes illustrated three main works on birds that remained the go-to for of their areas for many years. Birds of Borneo went by means of a variety of editions with completely different editors into the Nineties. Finally, in fact, as area guides they’ve all been outdated by more moderen publications however not completely changed as richer and wider sources of knowledge.
Maybe because of Smythies’s being in Sarawak, in 1953 Hughes was appointed as a trustee administering the phrases of the desire of Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak.
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| From The Birds of Borneo |
I’ve discovered no different reference to work by Hughes after the publication of the Borneo e book in 1960—not stunning given his response to dealing with the chicken skins within the late Fifties. Nevertheless, artwork and vintage sellers generally supply prints of his silhouette sketches of naval life, which seem up to now from 1927. Gieves, the naval outfitters, revealed the prints and the three, depicting the rituals of Grog, Defaulters and Sunday Rounds on board HM ships, had been displayed of their premises on naval bases all through the world and purchased by a era of naval officers. One other is First Command the place the identify an officer taking up that submit could possibly be added. The central color cartoon is an outline of a small, callow youth steering a vessel with an infinite, seasoned coxswain standing subsequent to him to verify he doesn’t do something silly like hitting on the the massive warships proven within the background.
The one info I’ve on Commander Hughes after 1960 is that his son was killed in an accident in 1963, aged 19. The household had been then dwelling at Rook Cottage (a late sixteenth century home and now Grade II listed) in Chaldon, Surrey, a village on the North Downs. Hope Frances Hughes died in a Surrey hospital in 1984. Alfred Marcus Hughes died on 11 September 1991 in a nursing dwelling at Leg o’Mutton Nook, Yelverton, Devon, a day wanting his ninetieth birthday.
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I’ve copies of all Hughes’s plates for the Hong Kong Naturalist bar eight within the closing two volumes (9 and 10). I’ve sure copies of those volumes however the plates had been torn out. I’ll copy the others and put them on this website occasionally.
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| The primary plate by Hughes revealed within the Hong Kong Naturalist. Quantity 1, No 1, January 1930 Crested Mynah |
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| Hong Kong Naturalist Quantity, 1, No 2, Might 1930 Oriental Magpie-Robin |