SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: A Croydon man’s fascination with wildlife saw him travel across Europe and Africa and into the Arctic Circle in pursuit of rare and precious birds, and begin the practice of ringing which tracks the movement of avian migrants, as DAVID MORGAN explains
Leading authority: Harry Witherby, pictured here on a bird-watching trip to Corsica in 1937
Have you seen the swifts flying over Croydon this summer?
Did you take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch in the Spring?
Inside Croydon has looked before at the role of one Croydon resident, Eliza Phillips, in the formation of what is now known as the RSPB, and if you are interested in any aspect of ornithology, it is probable that the work of a Croydon-born birder, Harry Forbes Witherby, played a part in it.
Forbes Witherby helped to promote birding with his tireless energy, improving the general public’s awareness about birds, both native species and those in far-flung places.
In the 1869 Croydon directory, Henry Forbes Witherby and his wife Sarah were listed as living in Mona Cottage on Bramley Hill. Four years later, they were celebrating the birth of their fifth child, a son, on October 7 1873, who they named Harry.
He was born into a family whose roots were in printing and stationery. Henry was the third generation to run the family business, Witherby and Sons.
1869 Croydon Directory: the Witherby family listed at Mona Cottage
Thomas Witherby had founded the stationery firm in the 1740s in Birchin Lane, near the Sword Blade Coffee House in the City of London. The business, specialising in legal and maritime affairs, diversified into printing. In due course, Henry took over the business, although he appeared more interested in writing religious books and painting than he did in running the firm.
Henry’s religious conviction was a reflection of his membership of the Plymouth Brethren, a non-conformist evangelical Christian movement. Among his writings, in 1879 he completed The Gospel of our Salvation and a commentary on The Book of Joshua in 1890.
In the 1881 census, the Witherby business, described as law stationery, employed more than 160 people. Harry entered the family business when he left school.
Witherby and Sons branched out in 1885, importing American-made Hall typewriters and selling them as this country’s exclusive distributors. It cost customers eight guineas – equivalent to £1,300 today – for a portable machine.
Expensive bit of kit: the American-made typewriter, imported exclusively in Britain by the Witherby business
In 1889, the growing company widened its maritime publications by paying £250 to purchase the Royal Navy list – an official publication that details Royal Navy officers, their ranks, seniority, and the ships they command or are appointed to.
By 1894, two of the brothers had been made partners in the company. Theo, the eldest, wasn’t really interested in the business and left soon after to take Holy Orders. Harry enjoyed his promotion, though, and thrived with the publication side of the business.
The youngest son, George, became a partner in 1899 and this allowed his father, Henry, to retire and spend more time painting. He moved to Holmehurst, in the New Forest.
Harry was already using his position to show he was a keen observer of the natural world. He had published his first book Forest birds – their haunts and habitats in 1894, the year he began to publish the magazine Knowledge with a column entitled “Ornithological Notes”.
Harry Witherby travelled across Europe, parts of Africa and into the Arctic Circle, like a birding version of Indiana Jones, on the relentless pursuit for rare finds and precious examples.
Harry’s early birding activities were focused on collecting and studying their skins and feathers. His study of plumage and moulting made him an expert in this field.
The first of his major overseas birding expeditions was planned for 1898. He travelled to the Guadalquivir Delta in Spain. The Guadalquivir is the fifth longest river on the Iberian peninsula, with the cities of Seville and Cordoba on its banks. The delta has always been a haven for wildlife, where flamingoes, spoonbills, black kites and ospreys could be seen.
Well-travelled: Harry Witherby turned his notes from some of his journeys into books
In the summer of 1899, Witherby travelled with his friend and fellow birder AE Hamerton to the Kola Peninsula in the Arctic Circle, in the very north-western part of Russia. Here he gained information about birds which migrate, like the Arctic Tern and Snow Bunting.
In 1900 Witherby travelled to Sudan and Egypt. From the notes he gathered on this trip he wrote a book, Bird Hunting on the White Nile.
His companions on this journey were EH Sanders and CF Camburn. They were taxidermists. The three of them left Marseilles on the last day of February, reaching Cairo almost a week later, on March 6. They then travelled by train to Aswan, a journey which took 22 hours.
Witherby wrote: “The train, for ease and luxury, would not shame any European railway. Notwithstanding the lowness of the Nile, from Cairo to Luxor, the countryside was green and luxuriant. Camels, cattle, sheep and goats abounded and everywhere there were people working on the land.
“Beyond Luxor, the areas of cultivated land became gradually less.”
The hardships the group experienced during their adventure were many. Sandstorms were common. Witherby wrote that even boxes which seemed tightly closed were filled with sand. Their food was gritty. Papers and books were scattered around if they hadn’t been fastened down in some way.
There were many large black hornets which bothered the birders’ camps. Witherby wished he could train one of the brilliant plumaged bee-eaters to catch them to order.
Much-admired: Witherby was impressed by the colourful bee-eaters he observed in Africa
He noticed that no insect was feared by the bee-eaters. He observed one of them dart into the air and catch a hornet in the tip of its long bill. The bird returned to its perch crushing its prey by passing it to and fro between its beak before swallowing it whole.
Pigeons were a nuisance. Witherby was brutal in his response to them.
“Pigeons provided us with many a meal, indeed too many. So numerous were the pigeons and so thickly did they cluster in the trees that to save time and ammunition we often shot from 12 to 16 with a single cartridge. The pigeons were great drinkers and their favourite hour for imbibing was just before sunset.
“One evening from the same spot I fired some 20 shots as they were plunging down.”
The summer of 1903 was spent on another information-collecting trip. Witherby had no scientific training but he was meticulous about how he collected data and how he interpreted it. That year he travelled hundreds of miles to reach Fars, in Persia (modern-day Iran), to view the bird life there.
From his observations he found that there were many local forms or variations of species.
In 1904, by now 29, Witherby managed to find time to get married. His bride, Lilian, was the daughter of Rev Septimus Gillson, of Itchen Abbas, Hampshire. For their honeymoon, they went to Algeria. Witherby had planned a birding trip with his new bride lasting from March to May, during which time he taught Lilian how to skin a bird.
Lilian was to prove a most supportive wife. Witherby wrote: “She has endured hard places and discomforts for the sake of my pursuits.”
Twitchers’ institution: Witherby launched the British Birds magazine in 1907
Harry and Lilian Witherby were to raise a family of two sons and three daughters.
Lilian accompanied her husband on many trips, particularly through the 1920s to Spain.
In 1907, Witherby began one of his most important projects. The monthly magazine British Birds was launched. This was vital in widening the appeal of ornithology to the general public. It is still published online today. Witherby was editor for 36 years.
In 1909, he started one of the world’s first two bird ringing schemes. Witherby was keen to find out where birds “disappeared” to in winter. The two ringing schemes merged in the late 1930s with the British Trust for Ornithology taking responsibility for it, as they still do today.
The first ring recovery of a swallow happened in South Africa in 1912.
“That this swallow, breeding so far west of Europe should have reached so far to the south east of Africa in Natal seems to me, extraordinary,” Witherby wrote of this important discovery.
A sand martin ringed in Hampshire was recaught by the very same ringer the next winter in Morocco. The following summer, both the sand martin and the ringer were reunited again in Hampshire. Witherby’s project was working!
Ring of proof: Witherby’s work on ringing migratory birds, such as swallows, soon delivered astonishing findings
Witherby’s collection of 9,000 bird skin specimens did come in useful. In 1933, he sold it to the British Museum for £1,500 (almost £140,000 in today’s money). Witherby donated all but £100 of the museum payment to help fund the British Trust for Ornithology.
Perhaps his greatest achievement was the production of five volumes of the book, British Birds, which became a standard reference for anyone interested in the subject. At the time they were printed in the 1930s, the books were unrivalled for scientific accuracy and excellent illustrations.
Witherby retired from his publishing work in 1937 and, together with Lilian, hosted many visiting birdwatchers at their Gracious Pond Farm in Chobham, near Woking. Forced by the war to return to the office, the strain of such a routine caused Harry’s health to suffer.
He died on Decemember 11, 1943, aged 70.
In one obituary there appeared the following statement: “He had come to represent, and, almost as it were, personify British Ornithology in a unique way and the loss entailed by his death is impossible to exaggerate.”
Harry Forbes Witherby made quite an impression during his life, finding out more about what interested him and enthusing others with that passion. He did all that with a quiet modesty. He was the bridge between the Victorian old school, capture and kill, and the 20th Century, modern outlook of care and conserve.
If you would like a group tour of Croydon Minster or want to book a school visit, then ring the Minster Office on 020 688 8104 or go to the website on www.croydonminster.org and use the contact page
Some previous articles by David Morgan:
- Whitgift boy who got top Marks as a silversmith to high society
- Croydon cricketer who helped establish game in Melbourne
- The church fire that consumed a thousand years of history
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