Francis Kingdon-Ward, born Francis Kingdon Ward OBE, (6 November 1885 in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

– 8 April 1958) was an English botanist, explorer, plant collector and author. He published most of his books as Frank Kingdon-Ward and this hyphenated form of his name stuck, becoming the surname of his wives and two daughters. It also became a pen name for his sister

Winifred Mary Ward Winifred Mary Ward (12 October 1884 – 26 January 1979) was a pioneering British speech therapist. Early life Winifred was born on 12 October 1884 in Victoria Street, Old Charlton, London to parents Harry Marshall Ward and Selina Mary Ward ...

by default.

Biography

Son of

Harry Marshall Ward Harry Marshall Ward (21 March 1854 – 26 August 1906), FRS, , was a British botanist, mycologist, and plant pathologist. Born in Hereford, the eldest child of Francis and Mary Marshall Ward, Harry Ward was educated at Lincoln Cathedral s ...

and Selina Mary Ward, née Kingdon; he went on around 25 expeditions over a period of nearly fifty years, exploring

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...

, North Western China,

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

and

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

(now part of North Eastern

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

). In Myanmar he met and conducted some research into forestry and plants in the country with native botanist

Chit Ko Ko U Chit Ko Ko ( my, ချစ်ကိုကို, ; 1917-2008) was a noted Myanmar botanist. He produced a number of papers into botanical research he conducted in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. His 1961 paper on List of Trees and Shrubs, co-wri ...

. Among his collections were the first viable seed of '' Meconopsis betonicifolia'' (

Himalayan blue poppy ''Meconopsis grandis'', the Himalayan blue poppy, is a species of flowering plant in the poppy family Papaveraceae, native to China (Yunnan), Bhutan, North East India and Nepal. Growing to tall and broad, this hardy herbaceous perennial has a bas ...

, first discovered by Pére Delavay), ''

Primula ''Primula'' () is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the family Primulaceae. They include the primrose ('' P. vulgaris''), a familiar wildflower of banks and verges. Other common species are '' P. auricula'' (auricula), '' P. veris'' (cow ...

florindae'' (giant cowslip, named after his first wife Florinda, ''née'' Norman-Thompson)His published works, as listed above and '' Rhododendron wardii'', a yellow flowered species. A species of lizard, '' Calotes kingdonwardi'', is named in his honor. He is also commemorated in

Ward's trogon Ward's trogon (''Harpactes wardi'') is a species of bird in the family Trogonidae. Its range includes the northeastern parts of the Indian subcontinent stretching eastwards to Southeast Asia. It is found in Bhutan, India, Tibet, and Myanmar. It ...

, ''Harpactes wardi''. He survived many accidents on his expeditions including being impaled on a bamboo spike, falling off a cliff (stopped by a tree growing from the cliff), lost for two days with no food, tent crushed by a tree in a storm, and he was close to the epicentre of an

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

(registering 9.6 on the

Richter magnitude scale The Richter scale —also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale—is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Francis Richter and presented in his landmark 1935 ...

) on 15 August 1950 during an expedition in Assam. In addition to his professional activities as a botanist, in the 1930s Kingdon-Ward also served as a spy for the British India Office. In 1935, Kingdon-Ward was arrested by

Tibetans The Tibetan people (; ) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 6.7 million. In addition to the majority living in Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans liv ...

after he crossed the Sela pass into the Tawang tract ( now

Tawang District Tawang district (Pron:/tɑ:ˈwæŋ or təˈwæŋ/) is the smallest of the 26 administrative districts of Arunachal Pradesh state in northeastern India. With a population of 49,977, it is the eighth least populous district in the country (out o ...

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares ...

, India) despite being refused permission to do so by the Tibetan authorities who were then administering Tawang. Tibetans protested this violation of their border to the British mission then visiting

Lhasa Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Region in Southwest China. The inner urban area of Lhas ...

. Kingdon-Ward was quickly released, but this incident led the British to investigate the status of the border, and it was discovered that the entire Tawang tract had been ceded to British India by Tibet by the

Simla Convention The Simla Convention, officially the Convention Between Great Britain, China, and Tibet,

negotiated by Sir Henry McMahon with the Tibetans in 1914. In 1923 he moved to

Hatton Gore Hatton including Hatton Cross is a small settlement and locality in the London boroughs of Hillingdon and Hounslow, on the south-eastern edge of London Heathrow Airport and straddling the A30 road. Priot to 1965 it was in the county of Middlese ...

, a big house on the east side of Hatton Road,

Hatton, London Hatton including Hatton Cross is a small settlement and locality in the London boroughs of Hillingdon and Hounslow, on the south-eastern edge of London Heathrow Airport and straddling the A30 road. Priot to 1965 it was in the county of Middlese ...

; the site of the house is now under the east end of

London Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...

. He built there a big

rockery A rock garden, also known as a rockery and formerly as a rockwork, is a garden, or more often a part of a garden, with a landscaping framework of rocks, stones, and gravel, with planting appropriate to this setting. Usually these are small ...

looking like a bend in a river ravine in the Himalayas. He sold the house due to a loss that he made running a

plant nursery A nursery is a place where plants are propagated and grown to a desired size. Mostly the plants concerned are for gardening, forestry or conservation biology, rather than agriculture. They include retail nurseries, which sell to the general p ...

business. He was married twice, first to Florinda Norman-Thompson on 11 April 1923; later, to Jean Macklin, on 12 November 1947,''Frank Kingdon-Ward, Last of the Great Plant Hunters'', Charles Lyte (1989) to whom he remained married until his death. Florinda Kingdon-Ward had a brief political career which included standing as a

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

candidate for Parliament at the 1950 UK General Election in Lewes. Even towards the end of his career he was still active, his greatest "swansong" plant was probably '' Lilium mackliniae'', found jointly with his second wife after whom it is named. At age 68 he climbed to over 1,730–2,590 metres (5,680–8,500 ft) above sea level in the

Ukhrul district Ukhrul district ( Meitei pronunciation:/ˈuːkˌɹəl or ˈuːkˌɹʊl/) is an administrative district of the state of Manipur in India with its headquarters at Ukhrul, that is Hunphun. The district occupies the north-eastern corner of the sta ...

of Manipur, India (near the boundary of Myanmar to the east) and was still discovering new species of plants on his last expedition in 1956, including '' Roscoea australis'', the most southerly representative of its genus. He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1952. Frank Kingdon-Ward died on 8 April 1958 aged 72. He had suffered a stroke and went into a coma from which he never recovered. He was buried in the churchyard at

Grantchester Grantchester is a village and civil parish on the River Cam or Granta in South Cambridgeshire, England. It lies about south of Cambridge. Name The village of Grantchester is listed in the 1086 Domesday Book as ''Grantesete'' and ''Graunts ...

Published works

He wrote 25 books, mostly accounts of his expeditions. The titles, dates and publishers are as follows:
''On the Road to Tibet''
(1910) Shanghai Mercury Ltd. Shanghai
''Land of the Blue Poppy''
(1913) Cambridge University Press *''In Farthest Burma'' (1921) Seeley Service and Co (reprinted by Orchid Press, Thailand; 2nd rev edition (Jan 2005) ) *''Mystery Rivers of Tibet'' (1923) Seeley Service and Co (reprinted by Cadogan Books, 1986 ) *''From China to Hkamti Long'' (1924) Edward Arnold and Co *''The Romance of Plant Hunting'' (1924) Edward Arnold and Co *''Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorges'' (1926) Edward Arnold and Co *''Rhododendrons for Everyone'' (1926) The Gardener's Chronicle Ltd *''Plant Hunting on the Edge of the World'' (1930) Victor Gollancz (reprinted 1974, Theophrastus) *''Plant Hunting in the Wilds'' (1931) Figurehead (Pioneer series) *''The Loom of the East'' (1932) Martin Hopkinson Ltd *''A Plant Hunter in Tibet'' (1934) Jonathan Cape (reprinted by White Orchid, Thailand (2006) ) *''The Romance of Gardening'' (1935) Jonathan Cape *''Plant Hunter's Paradise'' (1937) Jonathan Cape *''Assam Adventure'' (1941) Jonathan Cape *''Modern Exploration'' (1945) Jonathan Cape *''About This Earth'' (1946) Jonathan Cape *''Commonsense Rock Gardening'' (1948) Jonathan Cape *''Burma's Icy Mountains'' (1949) Jonathan Cape (reprinted by White Orchid, Thailand; 2nd edition (2006) ) *''Rhododendrons'' (1949) Latimer House *''Footsteps in Civilization'' (1950) Jonathan Cape *''Plant Hunter in Manipur'' (1952) Jonathan Cape *''Berried Treasure'' (1954) Ward Lock and Co. Ltd. London and Melbourne *''Return to the Irrawaddy'' (1956) Andrew Melrose *''Pilgrimage for Plants'' (1960) George C. Harrap and Co. Ltd

Famous relatives

His sister,

, was a founder of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and wrote several books on speech therapy.

Notes

References

Sources

* Frank Kingdon-Ward's own works, as listed above * ''Frank Kingdon-Ward – Last of the Great Plant Hunters'', Charles Lyte (1989), John Murray Publishers Ltd,
Frank Kingdon-Ward, timeline of events. 1885–1958

External links

Biography of Frank Kingdon-Ward
(by the author of this Wikipedia article)

Brief biography with much useful material not covered here
Forgotten Travellers: In the Land of the Blue Poppy
Essay on F. Kingdon Ward

* ttp://www.french4tots.co.uk/kingdon-ward/fkw-timeline.html Timeline of Frank Kingdon-Ward's life {{DEFAULTSORT:Kingdon-Ward, Frank 1885 births 1958 deaths People educated at St Paul's School, London Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Writers from Manchester British Indian Army officers Veitch Memorial Medal recipients Officers of the Order of the British Empire English botanists English explorers Plant collectors English writers Liberal Party (UK) parliamentary candidates