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Early life and education
He was born on the July 2, 1857 in Dundee, Scotland to Bernard (a Flax Merchant) and Mary (nee McManee) Henry and the family moved back to Cookstown, Co. Tyrone Ireland shortly after. He was educated at Cookstown Academy and after at Queens College Galway (B.A.), Queens College, Belfast (M.A.) 1879 and to study medicine. He came in contact with Sir Robert Hart who encouraged him to join the Chinese Custom Service. He transferred his medical studies to Edinburgh to finish his degree sooner and qualified as a doctor. Later in his Chinese Career he studied Law and became a member of the Middle Temple. He had studied Chinese before going to China and gained a great proficiency in the language.
He entered the Imperial Customs Service in Shanghi in 1881 as as Assistant Medical Officer and Customs Assistant and evenrually retired with the rank of Mandarin. He was sent to the remote posting of Yichang (Ichanh) in 1882 in Hubei Province Central China to investigate plants used in Chinese medicine. He also served in Hupeh, Szechuan, Simao (Yunnan), Mengsi and the island of Formosa (Taiwan).
Plantsman career
- Davidia involucrata, originally discovered in Tibet by Abee Armand David, Augustine Henry gave instructions to his assistant Mr. Wilson to collect it. Augustine Henry was the first to send seed of his to Europe.
While at Yichang and in other parts of China he collected plants, seeds and specimens many of which had not been known until then. In 1888 he published a list of Chinese plants for the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. At that time the flora and fauna of China was not well known. By 1896, 25 new genera and 500 new species had been identified from his specimens.
He sent over 15,000 dry specimens and seed to Kew Gardens and 500 plant samples. many of these later became well known garden plants. See the reference to Dr. Nelson's study below. On his return to Europe he spent some time working at Kew Gardens on his own plants.
In 1900 he went to France to study at the National School of Forestry at Nancy. He was the joint author with Henry Elwes of the 7 volume 'Trees of Great Britain and Ireland' 1907-13. His contribution here was unique insofar as he devised a system of identification based on leaves and twigs and on the position of buds to aid identification even in the absence of fruit and flowers. He was involved in the establishment of the Chair of Forestry at Cambridge University in 1907, and remained there until 1913. He was responsible with A.C. Forbes, the Director of Forestry at the Department of Agriculture and Technical instruction, for the lay-out of one acre plots of trees at Avondale, Co. Wicklow.
Celtic Revival
He had an interest in the Arts and Crafts movement and in the Celtic Revival. He knew the poet W.B. Yeats, George William Russell (AE) and the families of Sir Roger Casement and Erskine Childers and the wife of George Bernard Shaw (née Townsend)
Royal College of Science, Dublin
He took up the Chair of Forestry at the Royal College of Science (later University College Dublin), in 1913 and assisted later in setting up a National Forestry Service.
Works
- Notes on Economic Botanical of China, introduction by E. Charles Nelson, Boethus Press 1986 ISBN 0-86314-097-1
- Anthropological work on Lolos and non-Han Chinese of Western Yunnan
- 'The wealth of beautiful trees and flowering shrubs which adorn gardens in all temperate parts of the world today is due in a great measure to the pioneer work of the late Professor Henry'. J.W.Besant 'Plantae Henryanae', Gard. chron. 98 (9 November 1935): 334-335
References
- A History of Gardening in Ireland, Keith Lamb patrick Bowe, The Botanic Gardens 1995, ISBN o-7076-1666-2
- A Heritage of Beauty An Illustrated Encyclopaedia, E.Charles Nelson, Irish Garden Plant Society 2000 ISBN 0-9515890-1-6, in particular Annex X11 Augustine Henry's Plants p.309-324
- The Wood and the Trees Augustine Henry, Sheila Pim, Boethus Press 1984 ISBN 0-86314-097-1
- Bretschneider's (Medical Advisor to Russian Legation Peking 1886-83) History of European Botanical Discoveries in China, 1898 London.
- Graduate student Noeleen Smyth,Trinity College, Dublin 2002 retraced the steps of Augustine Henry's Chinese expeditions.
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