Carl Alfred Bock (; 17 September 1849 – 10 August 1932) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

government official, author, naturalist and explorer.

Biography

Bock was born in

Copenhagen, Denmark Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

when his parents were traveling on business. He was the son of merchant and factory owner Carl Henirich Bock (1812–1877) and Regitze Hansen (1826–1900). His parents had a cotton factory in Sweden. He grew up in

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a seaside resort city and municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 112,000 as of January 2020, following the incorporati ...

and attended

Kristiansand Cathedral School Kristiansand Cathedral School (''Kristiansand katedralskole Gimle''), known in Latin as ''Schola Christiansandensis'', is a high school in Kristiansand, Agder, Norway. It is the oldest high school on the southern coast of Norway, having been fo ...

. He continued his education at

Christiansfeld Christiansfeld, with a population of 2,977 (1 January 2022), is a town in Kolding Municipality in Southern Jutland in Region of Southern Denmark. The town was founded in 1773 by the Moravian Church and named after the Danish king Christian VII. ...

Sønderjylland Southern Jutland ( da, Sønderjylland; German: Südjütland) is the name for the region south of the Kongeå in Jutland, Denmark and north of the Eider (river) in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The region north of the Kongeå is called da, Nør ...

, Denmark. Later he studied zoology and natural sciences in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, England. Bock served for six years at the Norwegian-Swedish Foreign Consulate at the seaport of

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of L ...

, England before he came to London in 1875. He obtained private funding, especially from Arthur Hay, 9th Marquess of Tweeddale for a journey of discovery to Sumatra and

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...

from 1878 to 1879 under authority of

Johan Wilhelm van Lansberge Johan Wilhelm van Lansberge (16 November 1830 – 17 December 1903) was a Dutch diplomat and entomologist. Lansberge studied at the Gymnasium (school), gymnasium in Zutphen then, from 1848–1854, at the University of Leiden. He held various dip ...

, Governor-general of the Dutch East Indies. With the support of the King Chulalongkorn, he traveled in 1881 around the interior of

Siam Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

and Laos. In 1886, he joined the joint Swedish-Norwegian Foreign Consulate Service. He was Norwegian-Swedish

vice-consul A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

in 1886 and in 1893

consul general A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

in Shanghai. From 1899 to 1900, he was consul in Antwerp and 1900–1903 Consul General in Lisbon. He left the Foreign Consulate Service in 1903 and settled in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. He was a member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Unive ...

(''Videnskapsselskapet i Kristiania'') and was a knight, first class of the Order of St. Olav. His large collection of artifacts from

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

is now kept principally at 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 ...

in London. A species of snake, ''Atractus, Atractus bocki'', is named in his honor.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Bock", p. 28).

Selected works

*''Descriptions of two new Species of Shells from China and Japan'' (1878). *''List of Land and Freshwater. Shells collected in Sumatra and Borneo, with Descriptions of new Species'' (1881). *''The Head Hunters of Borneo; A Narrative of Travel up the Mahakkam and Down the Barito; Also, Journeyings in Sumatra'' (1882). *''Temples and Elephants: The Narrative of a Journey of Exploration Through Upper Siam and Lao'' (1884).

References

Other sources

*Reece, Bob (1995). "Carl Bock, explorations and travels in Sumatra, Borneo, and Siam". ''In'': King, Victor T., editor (1995). ''Explorers of South-East Asia: Six Lives''. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. 300 pp. . 1849 births 1932 deaths People from Kristiansand People educated at Kristiansand Cathedral School Norwegian explorers Consuls-general of Norway Norwegian diplomats Recipients of the St. Olav's Medal {{Norway-gov-bio-stub