Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|English topographer and naturalist (1834–1923)}}

{{Use British English|date=September 2022}}

| birth_place      = [[Teignmouth]], England

| death_place      = [[Godalming]], England

| fields            = [[Topography]], [[surveying]], [[malacology]], [[ornithology]], [[geology]]

| awards            = [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]], Founder's Medal of [[Royal Geographical Society|RGS]]

| spouses          = Kudidje (1858–1860?); Pauline G. Plowden (1861–1871); Jessie Robinson (1881–1913)

[[Lieutenant-Colonel]] '''Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen''' [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]] [[Zoological Society of London|FZS]] [[Royal Geographical Society|FRGS]] [[British Ornithologists' Union|MBOU]] (6 July 1834 – 2 December 1923), known until 1854 as '''Henry Haversham Austen''', was an [[England|English]] [[topographer]], [[Surveyor (surveying)|surveyor]], naturalist and [[geologist]].

He explored the mountains in the Himalayas and surveyed the glaciers at the base of [[K2]], also known as Mount Godwin-Austen. Geographer [[Kenneth Mason (geographer)|Kenneth Mason]] called Godwin-Austen "probably the greatest mountaineer of his day".<ref name="Kenneth Mason 1955">{{cite book |last1=Mason |first1=Kenneth |title=Abode of snow: a history of Himalayan exploration and mountaineering from earliest times to the ascent of Everest |date=1955 |publisher=Rupert Hart-Davis |location=London|isbn=9780906371916}}</ref> He also remains the most important investigator of the terrestrial molluscs of the Indian subcontinent.

The eldest son of the geologist [[Robert Alfred Cloyne Godwin-Austen|Robert Austen]], who in 1854 added Godwin to his surname by royal licence,<ref name=conch>'H. H. Godwin-Austen' (obituary) in ''The Journal of Conchology'' (1925), p. 141</ref> Henry Haversham Austen was probably born at Ogwell House, near [[Newton Abbot]], [[Devon]], where his father had recently taken up residence.<ref>''Proceedings of the Royal Society of London'', vol. 38 (1885), p. xi</ref> His father's family, landowners in Cheshire and Surrey since the 12th century, was a family of merchant venturers, soldiers, scholars, and collectors. His grandfather, Sir Henry Edmund Austen (1785–1871), was a [[High Sheriff of Surrey|High Sheriff]] and [[Deputy Lieutenant]] for [[Surrey]] and a [[gentleman of the Privy Chamber]] to [[William IV of the United Kingdom|King William IV]].<ref name=cm3/> His great-grandfather, Robert Austen (died 1797), married Lady Frances Annesley, a descendant of [[Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey]].<ref name=cm1>Catherine Moorehead, ''The K2 Man (and His Molluscs)'' (2013), chapter 1</ref>

Austen's mother, Maria Elizabeth Godwin, was the only child of [[Henry Godwin (army officer)|Major-General Sir Henry Godwin]] (1784–1853), who had fought in the [[First Anglo-Burmese War]] and who commanded the British and Indian forces in the [[Second Anglo-Burmese War|Second]].<ref name=ibis /><ref name=odnb>Kenneth Mason, revised by Elizabeth Baigent, 'Austen, Henry Haversham Godwin- (1834–1923)' in ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'' (Oxford University Press, 2004) odnb/33438 https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/33438</ref><ref>T. H. Holdich, 'Obituary: Lieut.-Colonel Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen' in ''Geographical Journal'', vol. 63 (1924), pp. 175–176</ref> His brother [[Edmund Godwin Austen]] played [[first-class cricket]] for [[Canterbury cricket team|Canterbury]] in New Zealand.<ref name="CI">{{cite web |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/21/21365/21365.html |title=Edmund Godwin Austen |work=Cricket Archive |access-date=17 October 2022}}</ref> H. H. Austen was educated at the [[Royal Grammar School, Guildford]], and then from 1848 to 1851 at the [[Royal Military College, Sandhurst]].<ref name=odnb /> At Sandhurst he learnt military surveying from Captain Robert Petley<ref>Roger Taylor, Larry J. Schaaf, ''Impressed by Light'' (Yale University Press and Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007), p. 357</ref> and was a contemporary of the future [[Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts|Lord Roberts]].

In 1851, after leaving the Royal Military College, Austen was commissioned into the [[24th Foot]]. In early 1853 he arrived in [[Burma]] at the end of the [[Second Anglo-Burmese War|Second Anglo-Burmese war]], serving as [[aide-de-camp]] to his maternal grandfather, General Sir Henry Godwin.<ref name="Preece2022">{{Cite journal |last=Preece |first=R.C. |last2=White |first2=T.S. |last3=Raheem |first3=D.C. |last4=Ketchum |first4=H. |last5=Ablett |first5=J. |last6=Taylor |first6=H. |last7=Webb |first7=K. |last8=Naggs |first8=F. |date=2022 |title=William Benson and the golden age of malacology in British India: biography, illustrated catalogue and evaluation of his molluscan types |url=https://li01.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/tnh/article/view/257073 |journal=Tropical Natural History |volume=Supplement 6 |pages=1–434}}</ref> The latter died unexpectedly in 1853, and as a result his daughter's family added the name of Godwin to their own, becoming Godwin-Austen.<ref name=conch/>

While in Burma, he surveyed the [[Irrawaddy Delta]], and this work came to the favourable notice of [[Andrew Scott Waugh|Sir Andrew Scott Waugh]], [[Surveyor General of India]]. After periods in [[Simla]] and [[Sialkot]],<ref name="Preece2022"/> Godwin-Austen was posted to [[Peshawar]] under the command of Major General Thomas Reed.<ref name=Preece2022/><ref name=odnb/> In 1856, he joined the [[Trigonometrical Survey of India]] and began to work in [[Kashmir]] under Captain Thomas George Montgomerie.<ref name=odnb /> In May 1856 he was promoted Lieutenant, in March 1857 he was formally appointed to the Survey of India, and on 29 October 1858 he was further promoted to Captain.<ref name=cm8>Moorehead (2013), chapter 8</ref>

A liaison with an Indian lady named Kudidje, the daughter of a Muslim landowner of [[Poonch district, India|Poonch]], probably a [[Sudhan]], may have begun as early as 1855, and this led to the birth on 5 May 1857 of a son who was named Edward.<ref name=cm8/> Another source says that Edward was born at Sialkot on 15 March 1859.<ref>D. K. Palit, ''Saga of an Indian I. M. S. Officer: The Life and Times of Lieutenant Colonel Anath Nath Palit, OBE 1883-1972'' (Centre for Armed Forces Historical Research, United Service Institution of India, 2006), p. 67, quoting a letter of Godwin-Austen: "When your father was born at Sialkot on 15 March 1859, he was known as Edward or Eddy. The other names you give, Henry Hastings Godwin, are new to me and must have come from the Milners..."</ref> The relationship is seen by one biographer as probably an obstacle to Godwin-Austen's advancement in India.<ref name=cm1/> In April 1857 Godwin-Austen was posted to Kashmir. In June 1858 he married Kudidje in a ceremony near Budrawar; from the British point of view the marriage was legal as it satisfied Muslim conditions. In November 1858, Godwin-Austen was seriously injured in an attack near [[Udhampur]] which left him unconscious, and in April 1859 he took a year's home leave, joining the Second Battalion of his regiment in England. While there, he became a [[Fellow]] of the [[Royal Geographical Society]].<ref name=cm9/>

From 1857 to June 1860 he had worked for the Survey of India, mainly around the [[Kazinag National Park|Kazi Nag]], [[Pir Panjal Region|Pir Panjal]], and Marau-Warwan regions. He was given a permanent post in the Trigonometrical Survey and in 1860 mapped [[Shigar]] and the lower [[Saltoro Valley]] of [[Baltistan]] as far as the south face of K1, [[Masherbrum]]. In 1861, he traversed the Skoro La, beyond [[Skardu]] and [[Shigar]], where he surveyed the [[Karakoram|Karakoram glaciers]]: [[Baltoro Glacier|Baltoro]], Punmah, [[Biafo Glacier|Biafo]], Chiring, almost as far as the Old [[Mustagh Pass]] and [[Hispar valley|Hispar]]. On this expedition, he climbed at least 1000 m above Urdukas on the Baltoro Glacier, and fixed the height and position of K2 for the first time.<ref name=odnb />

In 1860, after a separation of some fifteen months, Godwin-Austen and Kudidje were reunited, and she accompanied him on his first expedition to Baltistan. However, after September 1860 she disappears from the record, and Godwin-Austen arranged the adoption of their son by a couple named Milner, so it is likely that Kudidje had died by late 1860. A few months before his death in 1923, Godwin-Austen received the surprise of a letter from a Mrs Barclay, one of their grandchildren, a daughter of Edward, and in reply recalled of Kudidje "She was a good wife with me and if there is anything now left that I can look back on and love, it is her memory and the way she looked after me."<ref name=cm9/>

In 1862, Godwin-Austen surveyed upper [[Chang Chenmo River|Changchenmo]], [[Pangong range|Pangong district]], and the [[Zanskar]] ranges, resulting in his ''Notes on the Pangong Lake District of Ladakh'' (1864).<ref name=odnb /><ref>H. H. Godwin-Austen, 'On the Glaciers of the Mustakh Range' in ''[[Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London]]'', vol. 34 (1864), pp. 19–56</ref>

Although he gave great attention to geology and topography, his greatest interest lay in collecting non-marine molluscs and in identifying birds. He published his ''Birds of Assam'' (1870–1878) and described a number of birds for the first time, some with [[Arthur Hay, 9th Marquess of Tweeddale]]. Most of these notes were published in the ''Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal'' and Godwin-Austen sometimes drew illustrations of the new bird species. He was particularly active in ornithology after 1863, when he was posted in the eastern Himalayas as part of the political mission to [[Bhutan]] headed by [[Ashley Eden]]. He surveyed the [[Garo Hills|Garo]], [[Khasi Hills|Khasi]], and [[Jaintia Hills district|Jaintia hills]], and in 1875 joined an expedition into the [[Daphla Hills]].<ref name=odnb /> Venturing into [[anthropology]], he described the monuments and customs of the [[Khasi people|Khasi tribes]].<ref>H. H. Godwin-Austen, 'On the Stone Monuments of the Khasi Hill Tribes, and on Some of the Peculiar Rites and Customs of the People' in ''Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland'', vol. 1 (1872), pp. 122–143</ref><ref>H. H. Godwin-Austen, 'The Mountain Systems of the Himalaya and Neighbouring Ranges of India' in ''Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography'', vol. 6, issue 2 (1884), pp. 83–87</ref>

In 1877, Godwin-Austen retired from the Trigonometrical Survey of India with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, as his health was beginning to deteriorate, but back in England he recovered. In 1881, he married lastly Jessie, daughter of John Harding Robinson, an Examiner in the [[House of Lords]]. She was 20 and he 47.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen |url=https://www.godalmingmuseum.org.uk/?page=lt-col-henry-haversham-godwin-austen |website=Historic Godalming |publisher=Godalming Museum |access-date=17 December 2022}}</ref> They remained married until his wife's death in 1913,<ref name=odnb /> and the marriage has been called "a union of love and mutual support".<ref name=cm1/> An obituary stated that, "of a most attractive disposition and singular charm of manner, Godwin-Austen was much beloved by his contempories".<ref name=ibis>{{cite journal| author=Anonymous|pages=360–362|doi=10.1111/j.1474-919X.1924.tb05332.x| journal=Ibis| volume=66| issue=2| year=1924| title=Obituary| doi-access=free}}</ref>

When his father died in 1884, Godwin-Austen inherited an estate and substantial house at [[Shalford, Surrey|Shalford]], in [[Surrey]]. The estate no longer provided sufficient income to fund such a house. Unable to sell land because of an [[entail]], he was declared [[bankrupt]] in 1899, although through the sale of the house he had discharged the bankruptcy by 1902. Thereafter he lived at another property on the estate, Nore House near [[Godalming]].<ref name=cm1/><ref name=Preece2022/>

 

[[File:Godwin-Austen British Association 1883.tif|thumb|Godwin-Austen depicted for his role as President of the Geography Department of the [[British Association for the Advancement of Science]], 1883]]

Godwin-Austen produced numerous research articles on the terrestrial molluscs that he had collected in India. He sold this collection to the [[Natural History Museum, London|British Museum]], but parts were loaned back in turn for him to work on, besides which he visited the museum regularly to catalogue both his own and others' collections from India (work for which he was paid). He had also sold this museum his collection of birds, about 3,500 skins collected in Manipur and Assam. Unlike most contemporary [[malacology|malacologists]], he described not just the shells but also the internal anatomy and [[radula]] teeth, which often better distinguish species and more reliably assign them to [[Family (Biology)|families]]. He took over the authorship of the first volume of the ''[[The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma|Fauna of British India]]'' devoted to terrestrial molluscs, but he was subsequently replaced by [[Gerard Pierre Laurent Kalshoven Gude|G.K. Gude]], who could work faster because his descriptions were more superficial. Instead Godwin-Austen chose to work on his own at his own pace, publishing most of his results in ''The Land and Freshwater Mollusca of India'', appearing in 13 parts from 1882 to 1920. This research brought him recognition, and he served as President of the [[Malacological Society of London]] (1897–1899), President of the [[Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland]] (1908–1909) and Vice President of the [[Zoological Society of London]] (1895). In 1880 he had been elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] and in 1910 he received the [[List of recipients of the Founder’s Medal|Founder's Medal]] of the [[Royal Geographical Society]].<ref name=Preece2022/>

 

He died on 2 December 1923 at Nore, looked after in the last 10 years of his life by his sister Beatrice.<ref name=cm26>Catherine Moorehead, ''The K2 Man (and His Molluscs)'' (2013), chapter 26</ref>

 

Family tradition holds that Haversham Godwin-Austen was a convert to the Buddhist faith (following a self-attested period as an at least nominal Muslim in the middle to late 1850s), and as such he may be the first known British adherent to Buddhism. His small Burmese-style Buddhist shrine at Nore, Hascombe, Surrey, is likely to have been erected there around 1901 (although a later date of c. 1920 is possible), perhaps after being situated at each of Godwin-Austen's successive main residences from 1877 onwards, following his return to England after 25 years in Asia. Accordingly, the shrine probably constitutes the first ever custom-built physical structure raised for Buddhist devotional purposes in Britain. It was forgotten and lost to view under brambles after Godwin-Austen's time, prior to rediscovery in 1962 by a new owner of Nore, actor [[Dirk Bogarde]].<ref>Catherine Moorehead, ''The K2 Man (and His Molluscs): The Extraordinary Life of Haversham Godwin-Austen'' (2013)</ref>

Godwin-Austen's conversion – and possibly his shrine – therefore predates the earliest formal Buddhist missions to Britain: namely, those of the Japanese-sponsored 'Buddhist Propagation Society', led by Irish-born Captain [[Charles J. W. Pfoundes]] in 1889, and that of English convert [[Charles Henry Allan Bennett]], also known as 'Ananda Metteyya', in 1908. 'The Buddhist Society of Great Britain & Ireland' was formed in 1907.<ref>Brian Bocking, Laurence Cox and Shin’ichi Yoshinaga, ''The First Buddhist Mission to The West: Charles Pfoundes and The London Buddhist Mission of 1889 – 1892.'' (2014) {{cite web |url=http://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/DISKUS/index.php/DISKUS/article/view/51 |title=The First Buddhist Mission to the West: Charles Pfoundes and the London Buddhist mission of 1889 – 1892 &#124; Brian &#124; DISKUS |access-date=2015-03-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402170329/http://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/DISKUS/index.php/DISKUS/article/view/51 |archive-date=2 April 2022}}</ref>

The second-highest mountain in the world, the [[Karakoram]] peak [[K2]] in the [[Himalayas]], was at one time renamed Mount Godwin-Austen, in honour of its first surveyor. The [[Godwin-Austen Glacier]] was also named in his honour.<ref name=odnb />

Godwin-Austen "stands out as by far the most important investigator of Indian Mollusca."<ref name="Verdcourt1995">{{cite journal |last1=Verdcourt |first1=B. |title=The reprint mailing list of Lt. Col. H.H. Godwin-Austen |journal=The Conchologists' Newsletter |date=1995 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=501–504}}</ref> His ''The land and freshwater molluscs of India'' has been described as "an epoch-making work on Indian land molluscs, also indispensable in the study of all Oriental and Ethiopian faunas."<ref name="Anon1924">{{cite journal |last1=Anonymous |title=Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen |journal=Nautilus |date=1924 |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=31–32 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8525009}}</ref> The mollusc genera ''Austenia'' G. Nevill, 1878,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nevill |first1=G. |title=Hand list of Mollusca in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. Part I. Gastropoda. Pulmonata and Prosobranchia-Neurobranchia |date=1878 |publisher=Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing |location=Calcutta |pages=xv + 338 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/19872326}}</ref> ''[[Godwinia]]'' Sykes, 1900,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sykes |first1=R. |title=Sykes, Fauna Hawaiiensis. Volume II, Part IV, Mollusca |date=1900 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |pages=271–412, pls 11, 12 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/4139087}}</ref> and several Indian species have been named in his honour.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Woodward |first1=B.B. |title=Obituary. Lieut.-Col. Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen, F.R.S., etc. 1834-1923 |journal=Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London |date=1924 |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=24–25 |doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.mollus.a063840}}</ref> Godwin-Austen is also commemorated in the scientific names of two species of lizards: ''[[Pachydactylus austeni]]'' and ''[[Pseudocalotes austeniana]]''.<ref>Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("Austen", p. 13).</ref>  

His son R.A. Godwin-Austen was also a career army officer<ref name="Kingsley2017">{{cite web |last1=Kingsley |first1=N. |title=(255) Godwin-Austen of Shalford House |url=https://landedfamilies.blogspot.com/2017/03/255-godwin-austen-of-shalford-house.html |website=Landed families of Britain and Ireland |access-date=17 December 2022}}</ref> and was later a supporter of the "saintly mafia" called [[Ferguson's Gang]], dedicated to saving historically important buildings.<ref>Maxwell Fraser, ''Surrey'' (1975), p. 155</ref> H. H. Godwin-Austen's nephew, [[General (United Kingdom)|General]] [[Alfred Reade Godwin-Austen|Sir Alfred Godwin-Austen]] (1889–1963), was a divisional commander of the [[East African campaign (World War II)|East African]] and [[Western Desert campaign|Western Desert]] campaigns during the [[World War II|Second World War]].<ref>Steen Ammentorp, [https://generals.dk/general/Godwin-Austen/Alfred_Reade/Great_Britain.html] at generals.dk, accessed 26 May 2014</ref>

{{cite book|author1=Catherine Moorehead|title=The K2 Man (and His Molluscs): The Extraordinary life of Haversham Godwin-Austen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wdx0AQAAQBAJ&pg=PT365|date=18 October 2013|publisher=Neil Wilson Publishing|isbn=978-1-906000-60-8|pages=365}}