William Henry Sykes

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William Henry Sykes.

Colonel William Henry Sykes,

ornithologist. One of the pioneers of the Victorian statistical movement, a founder of the Royal Statistical Society, he conducted surveys and examined the efficiency of army operation. Returning from service in India, he became a director of the East India Company and a member of parliament representing Aberdeen.[1]

Life and career

Sykes was born near

siege of Bhurtpur under Lord Lake in 1805. He commanded a regiment at the battles of Kirkee and Poonah and was involved in the capture of hill forts. By 1810 he could speak Hindi and Marathi languages. He became a captain on 25 January 1819 and travelled for four years across Europe from 1820. He returned to India in October 1824 and was appointed by Mountstuart Elphinstone as a statistical reporter to the Bombay government. He then collected statistical and natural history researches, and completed a census of the population of the Deccan, producing two voluminous statistical reports, and a complete natural history report illustrated with drawings. He married Elizabeth, daughter of William Hay of Renistoun, in 1824. He was promoted to the rank of major on 8 September 1826 and to lieutenant-colonel on 9 April 1831. In December 1829 the post of statistical reporter was abolished, but he took leave from military duty and continued to work on his statistical surveys. He completed this in January 1831 and left for Europe on furlough. He retired from active service with the rank of colonel on 18 June 1833, and in September 1835 he became a Royal Commissioner in Lunacy, a post he held till 1845. On account of his knowledge of Indian matters, he was made a director of the East India Company in 1840.[1] In 1867 he was elected chairman of the court of directors of the East India Company.[2]

Sykes in 1857

In 1847 he tried to contest for the

Royal Asiatic Society in 1858.[3] He was also a member of the Society of Arts and the Royal British Association.[4]

Sykes was elected Lord Rector of Marischal College, Aberdeen (whose founder, George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal, was an ancestor of his wife) in 1854.[5] He took a special interest in libraries and information accessibility, seeking university libraries to remain open for longer and supporting the role of public libraries. He noted that England was lagging behind Europe in the size of public libraries noting that the per-capita availability of books in London was 22 books for 100 persons while Paris had 160 for 100, Florence 317 per 100; Dresden 490 per 100; Munich 780; and Copenhagen 467 per 100. He also noted that Munich had 17 public libraries. In his installation talk as Lord Rector, he also claimed that he could help establish a commission in the Indian Army for the best students of mathematics, natural philosophy, natural history, Biblical criticism and classics if they had expertise in military drawing, and geology apart from good conduct.[6] He was a founder member, in 1835, and president of the Royal Statistical Society, 1863–1965; he was the eleventh holder of that post but the first not to be a peer or baronet. He also became an Honorary Metropolitan Commissioner in September 1835. Despite suffering from bronchitis he attended all parliament sessions and died in Kensington, London, aged 82.[1][3][4]

Contributions

See also: Category:Taxa named by William Henry Sykes

As a "Statistical Reporter" he travelled across the Deccan region, collecting data on populations apart from collecting natural history specimens. Some of statistical research contributions included the computations of the cost of maintenance per soldier. He calculated for instance that the French army had a much lower cost than that of the British army, which according to him allowed the French to maintain two soldiers for the cost of one "English" soldier.[7][8][9] He also worked out that native Indian soldiers were healthier than their European counterparts and that it was possible to provide pension and insurance to Indian soldiers with a very low premium although this was never implemented.[10]

Sykes was a pioneer meteorologist in India, taking regular temperature and atmospheric pressure readings; he noticed regular patterns in diurnal pressure variations and noted that the range was greatest in winter, while the least difference occurred during the monsoons.[11]

Sykes' collections of animals resulted in the publications of catalogues of

hemipodes of India. His list of birds of the Deccan contained almost 236 species.[12] He was an authority on the natural history of the Deccan region and he corresponded with many other naturalists. He used his influence during his position at the East India Company and Charles Darwin wrote to him to influence decisions in favour of including Edward Blyth on an expedition to China.[13] Sykes's lark (Galerida deva) of peninsular India is named after him. In addition, a race of blue-headed wagtail (Motacilla flava beema) was given the common name Sykes's wagtail in British Birds
(1907).

Sykes wrote extensively on Buddhism and its antiquity. In an 1842 paper published in the

Brahmanism, it was Buddhism that had reigned supreme in India's ancient past. Referring to the recently translated travelogue of Faxian, Sykes paid tribute to "the literature of that remarkable people—the Chinese" that thankfully existed to illuminate India's past. He hoped that, "by proper means, applied in a cautious, kindly and forbearing spirit, such farther changes may be effected as will raise the intellectual standard of the Hindus, improve their moral and social condition, and assist to promote their eternal welfare."[14][15] In 1856, the citizens of Bombay presented Sykes with a medal for his advocacy in favour of a native system of education.[3]

Sykes also wrote on the

Asiatic Society of Bombay.[18]

Legacy

Publications

Notes in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Woodward, BB. Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900, Volume 55. p. 258.
  2. ^ "Untitled". Western Daily Press. 14 June 1867. p. 3.
  3. ^ a b c Laurie, Col. WFB (1887). Distinguished Anglo-Indian. London: W H Allen & Co. pp. 104–109.
  4. ^ a b "Colonel Sykes, M.P." Aberdeen Journal. 19 June 1872. p. 8 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. ^ "Public breakfast to Colonel Sykes". Aberdeen Journal. 5 April 1854. p. 9 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  6. ^ Address delivered by Colonel W.H. Sykes, at the ceremony of his installation as the Lord Rector of Marischal College and University, Aberdeen, on Thursday 30th March, 1854. Aberdeen: The Herald Office. 1854.
  7. S2CID 143343493
    .
  8. ^ Sykes, W.H. (1864). "Comparison of the Organisation and Cost in Detail of the English and French Armies". Journal of the Statistical Society. 27: 1–69.
  9. ^ Talbot, PA (2005). "Colonel W H Sykes, Statistician. Statistically costing the British and French armies of 1864". Military History Journal. 13 (4).
  10. doi:10.11114/ijsss.v1i2.208
    .
  11. ^ Markham, Clements R. (1878). A memoir on the Indian surveys (2 ed.). London: W.H. Allen & Co. pp. 284–285.
  12. ^ Kinnear, N.B. (1952). "The history of Indian mammalogy and ornithology. Part II. Birds". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 51 (1): 104–110.
  13. ^ Letter from Darwin to Sykes 20 December 1859 Darwin Correspondence project
  14. ^ Singh 2004, p. 37.
  15. ^ JAS 1842, p. 14.
  16. ^ Sykes, WH (1863). The Taeping Rebellion in China: Its Origins, Progress, and Present Condition. London: Warren Hall & Co.
  17. ^ "Colonel Sykes on the mutinies in India". Jersey Independent and Daily Telegraph. 23 September 1857. p. 1 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  18. ^ Anonymous (1877) [1819]. "Editor's preface". Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay. 1: xix.
  19. ISBN 0-12-408355-2
  20. ^ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael (2003). Whose Bird? Men and Women Commemorated in the Common Names of Birds. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 332–333.

References

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Aberdeen
1857–1872 		Succeeded by
Academic offices
Preceded by Rector of Marischal College, Aberdeen
1854–1855 		Succeeded by
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