Maurice Vidal Portman (21 March 1860 – 14 February 1935) was a British

naval officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer (NCO), or a warrant officer. However, absent ...

, who is best known for documenting some of the Andamanese tribes between 1879 and 1901 when he was posted as a superintendent of the Andaman Island Penal Colony.

Life and career

Portman was born in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, the third son of Maurice Berkeley Portman and Helen Vidal Harris. His father was in turn the third son of Edward Portman, 1st Viscount Portman, and Emma Portman, Baroness Portman. He joined the Royal Indian Marine at the age of 16 and was some time in charge of the Viceroy's yacht. In July 1879 he was stationed at

Port Blair Port Blair (), officially named Sri Vijaya Puram, is the capital city of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India in the Bay of Bengal. It is also the local administrative sub-division (''tehsil'') of the islands, the headqu ...

in the

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago, made up of 200 islands, in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a mari ...

and made Officer in Charge of the Andamanese, a post which he held for more than 20 years with few interruptions (including December 1880 to December 1883 on sick leave, March 1887 to March 1888 on furlough).

Port Blair

During his time as a colonial administrator at Port Blair, Portman took a large number of photographs of the Andamanese, including some at the request of

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

(at his own expense) and the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

(on payment). Portman also undertook an expedition to

North Sentinel Island North Sentinel Island is one of the Andaman Islands, an Indian archipelago in the Bay of Bengal which also includes South Sentinel Island. The island is a protected area of India. It is home to the Sentinelese, an indigenous tribe in volunta ...

to contact the previously uncontacted tribe inhabiting the island. During the expedition, the

Sentinelese The Sentinelese, also known as the Sentineli and the North Sentinel Islanders, are Indigenous people who inhabit North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal in the northeastern Indian Ocean. Designated a particularly vulnerable tribal group a ...

fled at the sight of the expedition, though his party kidnapped two adults and four children, taking them to the capital of the

South Andaman Island South Andaman Island is the southernmost island of the Great Andaman and is home to the majority of the population of the Andaman Islands. It belongs to the South Andaman administrative district, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman a ...

. The adults died of illness soon after reaching Port Blair, and Portman ordered the children to be sent back with a large number of gifts after a few weeks. (1935)
Obituary – Mr. M.V. Portman – 'Father' of Andaman Islanders
". ''The Times of London'', 22 February 1935. Reproduced by G. Weber in

' , Appendix A The illness carried by the returning children, who had acquired them in Port Blair, has been suggested by some as the cause of the hostility displayed by the Sentinelese towards outsiders. During his time as a colonial administrator, Portman noted the devastating impact outside diseases, such as

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

, had on the Andamanese. Portman continued to take photographs of the Andamanese in Port Blair until the end of his stay in the island, documenting information about their

anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behaviour, wh ...

details, showing a marked interest in measuring the penises of the Andamanese. Portman often traveled without other British personnel, preferring instead to be accompanied by Andamanese servants with whom he engaged in sexual relations. Portman repeatedly praised the male Andamanese body, writing that "many of the men are very good-looking; as they have none of the thick lips, high cheekbones, and flat noses of the negro type; though the women are rather of the Hottentot Venus order of beauty". The plates made by Portman are now scattered among several museums around the world and may be partly unpublished. He also wrote two books, ''Notes of the Languages of the South Andaman Group of Languages'' (1898)Portman, M.V. (1898), ''Notes of the Languages of the South Andaman Group of Languages'' and ''A History of Our Relations with the Andamanese'' (1899).Portman, M.V. (1899), '' A history of our Relations with the Andamanese''
Volume I
an
Volume II
Office of the Government Printing, Calcutta, India. Portman also composed a significant collection of ethnographic objects during his time on the Andaman Islands that are now in the collections of the

.British Museum Collection
/ref>

Later life

His obituary stated that he had a "frail physique" and suffered from ill health. Later, his obituary explains that he considered himself a "homosexual" but never released this information publicly until he came close to death, thus explaining the clear interest in the male Andamanese body. After retiring as an invalid in 1901, he went back to Britain where he did some journalism and "some valuable Secret Service work" during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. He was a member of the Union Club. He never married and left no descendants.

Life and career

Port Blair

Later life

References

External links