John Whetham Boddam-Whetham (25 May 1843 – 23 March 1918) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

naturalist, traveler and first-class

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er.

Cricketer

The son of Colonel Alexander Boddam-Whetham and his wife, Maria, Boddam-Whetham was born at Kirklington Hall in May 1843. He was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

, though he did not represent the college XI in cricket. He did however make a single appearance in

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

for the

Gentlemen of the North A gentleman (Old French: ''gentilz hom'', gentle + man) is any man of good and courteous conduct. Originally, ''gentleman'' was the lowest rank of the landed gentry of England, ranking below an esquire and above a yeoman; by definition, the ...

against the

Gentlemen of the South A gentleman (Old French: ''gentilz hom'', gentle + man) is any man of good and courteous conduct. Originally, ''gentleman'' was the lowest rank of the landed gentry of England, ranking below an esquire and above a yeoman; by definition, the ra ...

at Beeston in 1870. Batting twice in the match, he was dismissed for seven runs in the Gentlemen of the North first-innings by

W. G. Grace William Gilbert Grace (18 July 1848 – 23 October 1915) was an English Amateur status in first-class cricket, amateur cricketer who was important in the development of the sport and is widely considered one of its greatest players. He played ...

, while in their second-innings he was dismissed by his brother,

Fred Grace George Frederick Grace (13 December 1850 – 22 September 1880) was an English first-class cricketer active from 1866 to 1880 who played for Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, Gloucestershire and the United South of England Eleven (USEE). He ...

, for five runs.

Travels

During the 1870s he became a well known naturalist and traveller. He toured the western United States in the early 1870s, which included an ascent of

Mount Shasta Mount Shasta ( Shasta: ''Waka-nunee-Tuki-wuki''; Karuk: ''Úytaahkoo'') is a potentially active volcano at the southern end of the Cascade Range in Siskiyou County, California. At an elevation of , it is the second-highest peak in the Cascades ...

. From there he departed for Australia, and from

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

he took a boat to

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

, arriving in July 1874. During his tour of the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kur ...

, he attempted unsuccessfully to recover a specimen of '' Moho nobilis'' for the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, a now extinct bird which was endemic to the islands. After travelling to Fiji and Samoa, he returned to Hawaii and was this time successful in recovering a pair of the birds. While travelling through Central America in 1875, Boddam-Wetham purchased two fragments from a carved wooden lintel in Flores, El Petén. Now in the British Museum, they are known to be from Lintel 3 of Temple I at

Tikal Tikal () (''Tik’al'' in modern Mayan orthography) is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. It is one of the largest archeological sites and urban centers of the pre-Co ...

.
British Museum Collection He returned to London in 1876, but left for a tour of Central and South America in later 1877 and arrived in

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...

in January 1878, where he was to set out to climb

Mount Roraima Mount Roraima ( es, Monte Roraima; Tepuy Roraima; Cerro Roraima pt, Monte Roraima ) is the highest of the Pakaraima chain of tepuis (table-top mountain) or plateaux in South America. It is located at the junction of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana. ...

. He joined a colonial government led exhibition to reach the summit of the mountain, but after a long trek through the rainforest they were unsuccessful. He continued his travels around Central America, returning to London in 1879. Boddam-Whetham published several accounts of his travels.

Later life

Following his travels in the 1870s, little is known of his later life, besides his marriage to Harriet Manning in November 1882 at

North Shore, Sydney The North Shore is a region within Northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, generally referring to suburbs located on the northern side of Sydney Harbour up to Wahroonga, and suburbs between Middle Harbour and the Lane Cove ...

. He died at

Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...

in March 1918.

Bibliography

*Tikal Report No 6 - Latin American Studies,THE CARVED WOODEN LINTELS OF TIKAL, William R. Coe and Edwin M. Shook, Appendix by Linton Satterthwait

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Boddam-Whetham, John 1843 births 1918 deaths People from Southwell, Nottinghamshire Cricketers from Nottinghamshire People educated at Eton College English cricketers Gentlemen of the North cricketers English naturalists English travel writers