Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Nicholson Betts (25 October 1906 – 22 August 1973) was a coffee plantation manager,

British Indian Army The Indian Army was the force of British Raj, British India, until Indian Independence Act 1947, national independence in 1947. Formed in 1895 by uniting the three Presidency armies, it was responsible for the defence of both British India and ...

officer, a political agent, and an

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

Biography

F. N. Betts (known to friends and family as "Tim"), was born in

Launceston, Cornwall Launceston ( , ; rarely spelled Lanson as a local abbreviation; ) is a town, ancient borough, and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is west of the middle stage of the River Tamar, which constitutes almost the entire borde ...

, in the UK to Barbara Treby Morshead and Herbert Nicholas Betts. He studied at

Winchester College Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...

from 1920 to 1924. He went to Ceylon and worked in the tea plantations there and later in the coffee plantations in

Coorg Kodagu district () (also known by its former name Coorg) is an administrative district in the Karnataka state of India. Before 1956, it was an administratively separate Coorg State at which point it was merged into an enlarged Mysore State ...

. He was commissioned in

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 ...

as a captain in the

Punjab Regiment Punjab Regiment may refer to the following existing units: *Punjab Regiment (India) *Punjab Regiment (Pakistan) From 1922 to 1947, the British Indian Army included 6 numbered Punjab Regiments: *1st Punjab Regiment * 2nd Punjab Regiment *8th Punj ...

, second lieutenant (12 September 1929, Lt. 20 June 1930, moving from the reserve to the Indian Army on 1 August 1932) and in 1940, was posted to

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

. He was later posted lieutenant colonel (intelligence) in the

V Force V Force was a reconnaissance, intelligence-gathering and guerrilla organisation established by the British against Japanese forces during the Burma Campaign in World War II. Establishment and organisation In April 1942, when the Japanese drove ...

in the

Burma campaign The Burma campaign was a series of battles fought in the British colony of British rule in Burma, Burma as part of the South-East Asian theatre of World War II. It primarily involved forces of the Allies of World War II, Allies (mainly from ...

, a guerrilla and intelligence unit in north eastern India which made use of Assam Hill tribesmen. Here he met Ursula Graham Bower, an anthropologist studying the Nagas, whom he married in 1945. The couple had two daughters, Catriona and Alison. In 1946, the government of India made him the first political officer of the Subansiri area between the Assam plains and the McMahon Line (the boundary between India and

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

). His first task was to march 60 miles into the interior to establish a supply

drop zone A drop zone (DZ) is a place where parachutists or parachuted supplies land. It can be an area targeted for landing by paratroopers and airborne forces, or a base from which recreational parachutists and skydivers take off in aircraft and land ...

and to set up a base which could provide supplies for the administrative setup there amid tribes such as the Nyishis and Apa Tanis. A year after India's independence, he moved to Kenya and served in the veterinary service in the Western Masai Reserve. He later moved from Kenya to the

Island of Mull The Isle of Mull or simply Mull ( ) is the second-largest island of the Inner Hebrides (after Skye) and lies off the west coast of Scotland in the Council areas of Scotland, council area of Argyll and Bute. Covering , Mull is the fourth-lar ...

in Scotland where he farmed the Ardura Estate and spent time studying birds, and in 1967 he moved again to the

New Forest The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, featu ...

in Southern England. He died of a stroke when out riding in the New Forest in 1973.

Natural history

During his time in various remote places he studied the local birds and butterflies. He was among the first to study and report from the remote Khru valley, the

district in southern India as well as from parts of northeast India and Africa. While in India he was an active 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 worked at coffee plantations in Coorg at Coovercully near Somwarpet and Yemmegundi at Pollibetta. His studies of the birds of Coorg during this time led to his major work on the birds of Coorg which he published 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 ...

'' to "complement" the results of the Mysore survey that

Salim Ali Sálim Moizuddin Abdul Ali (12 November 1896 – 20 June 1987) was an Indian ornithologist and naturalist. Sometimes referred to as the "Birdman of India", Salim Ali was the first Indian to conduct systematic bird surveys across India and wrot ...

was undertaking at around the same time. His work was ahead of his time in that the entire study was based purely on observations and not primarily based on collected skins. He was also among the pioneers of bird photography in India. His notes document the differences in the avifauna of the dry and wet zones of Coorg and also provide arrival dates for local and long-distance migrants. The editors of the ''Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society'' noted: Many of his notes on the birdlife of India were used by

. His work in

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

led to a major paper, "The Birds of Masai". He also took an interest in orchid cultivation. He became a member of the Hampshire Field Club's Ornithological section and of the Hampshire Naturalists' Trust. He was secretary of the New Forest Beagles, served on the New Forest Consultative Panel, and was a treasurer of the Burley Branch of the British Legion.

Publications

''JBNHS'' here is short for the ''Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society''. * (1965) "Notes on some resident breeding birds of southwest Kenya". ''

Ibis The ibis () (collective plural ibises; classical plurals ibides and ibes) are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae that inhabit wetlands, forests and plains. "Ibis" derives from the Latin and Ancient Greek word f ...

''. 108 (4): 513-530. * (1957
"''Halcyon pileata'' inland"
''JBNHS''. 54 (2): 462. * (1956
"Notes on birds of the Subansiri area, Assam"
''JBNHS''. 53 (3): 397-414. * (1956
"Colonization of islands by White-eyes (''Zosterops'' spp.)"
''JBNHS''. 53 (3): 472-473. * (1954
"Occurrence of the Blacknecked Crane (''Grus nigricollis'') in Indian limits"
''JBNHS''. 52 (2&3): 605-606. * (1952
"Birds nesting on telegraph wires"
''JBNHS''. 51 (1): 271-272. * (1952) "The breeding seasons of birds in the hills of South India". ''Ibis''. 94 (4): 621-628. * (1951
"The birds of Coorg. Part II"
''JBNHS''. 50 (2): 224-263. * (1951
"The birds of Coorg. Part I"
''JBNHS''. 50 (1): 20-63. * (1950) "Tangkhul Naga Pottery-Making". ''

Man A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the f ...

''. 50: 117-118. * (1950
"On a collection of butterflies from the Balipara Frontier Tract and the Subansiri Area. (Northern Assam)"
''JBNHS''. 49 (3): 488-502. * (1948) "The flight of Storks on migration". ''Ibis''. 90 (1): 150-151. * (1947
"Bird life in an Assam jungle"
''JBNHS''. 46 (4): 667-684. * (1940) "Birds of the Seychelles - 2. The sea-birds more particularly those of

Aride Island Aride Island is the northernmost Granite, granitic island in the Seychelles (Bird Island, Seychelles, Bird Island is the northernmost Seychelles island overall). A nature reserve, it is leased and managed by the Island Conservation Society of Seyc ...

". ''Ibis'' (14) 4: 489–504. * (1939
"The breeding of the Indian Sooty Tern (''Sterna fuscata infuscata'') in the Laccadive Islands"
''JBNHS''. 40 (4): 763-764. * (1938
"The birds of the Laccadive Islands"
''JBNHS''. 40 (3): 382-387. * (1938
"Some birds of a Coorg down"
''JBNHS''. 40 (1): 39-48. * (1937
"Bird life on a southern Indian tank"
''JBNHS''. 39 (3): 594-602. * (1936
"Wanted information about heronries in South India"
''JBNHS''. 39 (1): 183. * (1935
"Nidification of the Blackheaded Babbler ''Rhopocichla a. atriceps'' (Oates)"
''JBNHS''. 38 (1): 189. * (1935
"Arrival dates of migrant birds in Coorg"
''JBNHS''. 38 (1): 197. * (1934
"Dates of arrival of migrant birds in Coorg in 1932
''JBNHS''. 37 (1): 225. * (1934
"South Indian Woodpeckers"
''JBNHS''. 37 (1): 197-203. * (1932
"Notes on some Ceylon birds"
''JBNHS''. 36 (1): 257-259. * (1931
"The Bulbuls of the Nilgiris"
''JBNHS''. 34 (4): 1024-1028. * (1930
"Migration notes in 1929 from the Nilgiri District"
''JBNHS''. 34 (2): 569. * (1929
"Notes on the birds of Coorg"
''JBNHS''. 33 (3): 542-551. * (1929
"Bird movements in Coorg"
''JBNHS''. 33 (3): 718-719. * (1929
"Migration of the Pied Crested Cuckoo ''Clamator jacobinus''"
''JBNHS''. 33 (3): 714. * (1929
Distribution of the Brown Shrike ''Lanius cristatus cristatus''".
''JBNHS''. 33(3):714.

Works based on his life

Two

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

programs, ''The Naga Queen'', produced by Chris Eldon Lee and narrated by John Horsley Denton, and ''The Butterfly Hunt'', a play by Matthew Solon were based on the life of F. N. Betts and his wife Ursula Graham Bower.

References

Other sources

* Bower, Ursula Graham (1950). ''Naga Path''. London, John Murray. * Bower, Ursula Graham (1953). ''The Hidden Land''. London, John Murray.

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20060424115935/http://www.burmastar.org.uk/nagaqueen.htm * http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hometruths/nagaqueen.shtml * https://web.archive.org/web/20070716155752/http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/1466 {{DEFAULTSORT:Betts English ornithologists 1906 births 1973 deaths British Indian Army officers British people in colonial India Burmese military personnel of World War II People educated at Winchester College People from Launceston, Cornwall 20th-century British zoologists Members of the Bombay Natural History Society