Edward Hamilton Aitken
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Edward Hamilton Aitken (16 August 1851, in Satara,
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
– 11 April 1909, in
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) was a civil servant in India, better known for his
humorist A humorist is an intellectual who uses humor, or wit, in writing or public speaking. A raconteur is one who tells anecdotes in a skillful and amusing way. Henri Bergson writes that a humorist's work grows from viewing the morals of society ...
writings on
natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...
in India and as a founding member of the
Bombay Natural History Society The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), founded on 15 September 1883, is one of the largest non-governmental organisations in India engaged in conservation and biodiversity research. It supports many research efforts through grants and publ ...
. He was well known to
Anglo-Indians Anglo-Indian people are a distinct minority community of mixed-race British and Indian ancestry. During the colonial period, their ancestry was defined as British paternal and Indian maternal heritage; post-independence, "Anglo-Indian" has a ...
by the pen-name of Eha.


Early life

''Eha'' was born at Satara in the Bombay Presidency on 16 August 1851. His father was the Rev. James Aitken, missionary of the
Free Church of Scotland In contemporary usage, the Free Church of Scotland usually refers to: * Free Church of Scotland (since 1900), that portion of the original Free Church which remained outside the 1900 merger; extant It may also refer to: * Free Church of Scotland (1 ...
. His mother was a sister of the Rev.
Daniel Edward Daniel commonly refers to: * Daniel (given name), a masculine given name and a surname * List of people named Daniel * List of people with surname Daniel * Daniel (biblical figure) * Book of Daniel, a biblical apocalypse, "an account of the activi ...
, a missionary to the Jews at Breslau for some fifty years. He was educated by his father in India. His higher education was obtained at
Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...
and
Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...
. He passed M.A. and B.A. of
Bombay University University of Mumbai is a public state university in Mumbai. It is one of the largest university systems in the world with over 549,000 students on its campuses and affiliated colleges. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. It was est ...
, first on the list, and won the Homejee Cursetjee prize with a poem in 1880. From 1870 to 1876, he taught
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
at the Deccan College in Pune. He also knew
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
and was known to be able to read the
Greek Testament (''The New Testament in Greek'') is a critical edition of the New Testament in its original Koine Greek published by ''Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft'' (German Bible Society), forming the basis of most modern Bible translations and biblical crit ...
without the aid of a dictionary. He grew up in India, and it was only later in life that he visited England for the first time, and he found the weather of Edinburgh severe.


Career

He entered the Customs and Salt Department of the Government of Bombay in April 1876, and served in
Kharaghoda Kharaghoda is a census town in Surendranagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Under the Bombay Presidency of British Raj, Kharaghoda was a part of the then Ahmedabad district, and had the terminus of a branch railway line. A government ...
(referred to as ''Dustypore'' in ''The Tribes on my Frontier''),
Uran Uran is a coastal town in Raigad District's Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra state in Konkan division. It lies to the east of Mumbai across the Dharamtar Creek. Uran is primarily a fishing and agriculture village, which has developed into the spec ...
,
Uttara Kannada Uttara Kannada is a fifth largest district in the Indian state of Karnataka, It is bordered by the state of Goa and Belagavi districts to the north, Dharwad District and Haveri District to the east, Shivamogga District, and Udupi District to ...
and Goa Frontier,
Ratnagiri Ratnagiri (IAST:Ratnāgirī ; ət̪n̪aːɡiɾiː is a port city on the Arabian Sea coast in Ratnagiri District in southwestern Maharashtra, India. The district is part of Konkan division of Maharashtra. The city is known for the Hapus or ...
, and Bombay itself. In May 1903, he was appointed Chief Collector of Customs and Salt Revenue at
Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...
, and in November 1905, was made Superintendent in charge of the District Gazetteer of
Sind Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind or Scinde) is a province of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest provin ...
. He retired from the service in August 1906. He married Isabella Mary, the third daughter of the Rev. J. Chalmers Blake of the Free Church of Scotland on 22 December 1883 in Bombay and they had two sons and three daughters. Their daughter - Jesse Helen, married James Hood Wilson Lownie (1887-1961), and their son Ralph became a colonial judge and author of Auld Reekie. Their grandson is the author Andrew James Hamilton Lownie.


Natural history

He explored the jungles on the hills near Vihar around Bombay and wrote a book called ''The Naturalist on the Prowl''. His writing style was accurate and at the same time amusing to his readers. He studied most of his subjects in life and was very restricted in his collecting. In response to an appeal for information on rats due to plague in
Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...
, he wrote an article for ''
The Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...
'' (19 July 1899), in which he threw a flood of light on the subject of the habits and characteristics of the
Indian rat Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...
as found in town and country. He wrote that ''Mus rattus'', the old English
black rat The black rat (''Rattus rattus''), also known as the roof rat, ship rat, or house rat, is a common long-tailed rodent of the stereotypical rat genus ''Rattus'', in the subfamily Murinae. It likely originated in the Indian subcontinent, but is n ...
, which is the common house rat of India outside the large seaports, ''has become, through centuries of contact with the Indian people, a domestic animal like the cat in Britain''. In 1902 he was deputed to investigate the prevalence of
malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...
at the Customs stations along the frontier of
Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...
, and to devise means for removing the position of the Salt Peons who were affected by malaria in these places. During this expedition he discovered a new species of anopheline mosquito, which after identification by Major James, I.M.S., was named after him as '' Anopheles aitkeni''. During his service he took to writing the Annual Reports of the Customs Department and was frequently thanked for the same. Reviewers have commented that these reports are enlivened by his witty literary touch. In the last two years of his service he was put in charge of ''The Sind Gazetteer''. On completion of this work he retired to Edinburgh. He died after a short illness on 25 April 1909. He refused to be depressed by life in India. "I am only an exile," he remarks, "endeavouring to work a successful existence in Dustypore, and not to let my environment shape me as a pudding takes the shape of its mould, but to make it tributary to my own happiness." He therefore urged his readers to cultivate a hobby. He wrote: He worked at the museum of the
Bombay Natural History Society The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), founded on 15 September 1883, is one of the largest non-governmental organisations in India engaged in conservation and biodiversity research. It supports many research efforts through grants and publ ...
, an organization that he founded and published many of his notes in the
Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society The ''Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society'' (also ''JBNHS'') is a natural history journal published several times a year by the Bombay Natural History Society. First published in January 1886, and published with only a few interruption ...
. He was also the first joint-editor of that journal, secretary to the Insect division of the BNHS and president for some time. In one famous case a subordinate of EHA working in the Salt department in Kanara came to his bungalow with a snake on his shoulder. Eha wrote that the man had seen two snakes fighting and said 'I smashed at them with a stick-one got away, but I killed this one and have brought it to you-What is it ?' 'It is a King cobra, and you have not killed it' replied Eha. The snake was put in a crate and sent to the BNHS with the note 'It may not survive the journey. If it does not you will know it by the smell. If there be no smell be careful.' The snake survived for two years in the BNHS. He was a proponent of the study of living birds as opposed to the bird collectors of his time. He wrote in his ''Birds of Bombay'' In a similar manner he studied the life-histories of butterflies unlike most butterfly collectors of the time. He maintained an
aquarium An aquarium (: aquariums or aquaria) is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. fishkeeping, Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aquati ...
and made Sunday-morning expeditions to the ravines at the back of
Malabar Hill Malabar Hill is amongst the most affluent residential areas in Mumbai. It is home to several business tycoons and film personalities. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, had built and lived in a bungalow, called South Court, in Malab ...
to search for mosquito larvae to feed its inmates. Mr. Aitken investigated the capabilities for the destruction of larvae, of a small surface-feeding fish with an ivory-white spot on the top of its head, which he had found at Vihar in the stream below the bund. It took him some time to identify these particular fishes ('' Haplochilus lineatus'') which he called "Scooties" for their lightning rapidity of their movements. With these he stocked the ornamental fountains of Bombay to keep them from becoming breeding-grounds for mosquitoes, and they are now largely used throughout India for this very purpose. T. R. Bell, a naturalist friend, writing of him after his death said :''He was a good man in every sense of the word; a strongly religious man, a pleasant companion, broad minded, exceedingly tolerant of the weaknesses of others, gentle and lovable and a rare example of a man without a single enemy.'' ''Eha'' once wrote: He kept many pets at home and Surgeon-General Bannerman noted in his preface to Eha's books that he often found himself having to go on unpleasant trips to the ''primeval forests of Cumballa Hill'' to look for mosquito larvae to feed the fish. In appearance Eha has been described as a ''long, thin, erect, bearded man...with a typically Scots face lit up with the humorous twinkle one came to know so well.'' A photograph taken in 1902 shows a fringe of hair encircling a bald head which is commented upon by Bannerman as "a condition which ''Kemp's Equatorial Hair Douche'' had not been able to prevent". Despite the popular reception for his book, a contemporary review in the Pall Mall Gazette of his book ''Tribes on my frontier'' termed his work as being entirely based on the kind of humour established by Phil Robinson. The review said:


Writings

His books include * An Indian Naturalist's Foreign Policy (1883)
Behind the Bungalow
(1889) * The Naturalist on the Prowl (1894) * The Five Windows of the Soul (1898)
The Common Birds of Bombay
(1900) * The Tribes on my Frontier (1904)
Gazetteer Of The Province Of Sindh
(1907) After returning to Edinburgh, he wrote a series of articles on birdlife in the ''Strand Magazine''.Obituary. Edward Hamilton Aitken. ''Aberdeen Journal''. 28 April 1909. p. 3


Notes


References

* Preface to Eha's Concerning animals and other matters by Surgeon-general
William Burney Bannerman Major General William Burney Bannerman CSI FRSE (6 July 1858 – 3 February 1924) was a 19th and 20th century high-ranking Scottish military surgeon who worked in the Indian Medical Service. As director of the plague research laboratory, he con ...
I.M.S., C.S.I. * Preface to Eha's Common birds of Bombay by W. T. Loke * Aitken, E. H. (1886): A List of the Bombay butterflies in the Society's collection, with notes. — J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 1: 126–135. * Aitken, E. H. (1887): A List of the Butterflies of the Bombay Presidency. — J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 2: 35–44.


External links

* * *
Common Birds of Bombay
*
Common birds of India. 3rd edition with preface by Salim Ali and Loke Wan Tho
*
Behind the Bungalow
*
Tribes on my Frontier
*
Concerning Animals and Other Matters
*
A Naturalist on the Prowl
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aitken, Edward Hamilton 1851 births 1909 deaths University of Mumbai alumni British entomologists 19th-century British zoologists Naturalists from British India 19th-century English writers Scientists from British India British people in colonial India People from Bombay Presidency