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Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen: Difference between revisions
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{{Short description|English topographer and naturalist (1834–1923)}} | {{Short description|English topographer and naturalist (1834–1923)}} | ||
{{Use British English|date=September | {{Use British English|date=September 2013}} | ||
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}} | {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}} | ||
{{Infobox scientist | {{Infobox scientist | ||
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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> | 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 | 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 2020}}</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]]. | ||
==Life in Burma and India== | ==Life in Burma and India== | ||
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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> | 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 | Brian | 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 | 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 | Brian | 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 2015}}</ref> | ||
==Legacy== | ==Legacy== | ||