Reverend Edward Tickner Edwardes (1865–1944) was an English writer, beekeeper, medical officer and priest. He wrote one of the earliest accounts of
hitchhiking
Hitchhiking (also known as thumbing, autostop or hitching) is a means of transportation that is gained by asking individuals, usually strangers, for a ride in their car or other vehicle. The ride is usually, but not always, free.
Nomads hav ...
in 1910 – ''Lift-luck on Southern Roads''. He served in the
Royal Army Medical Corps
The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...
during the
First World War, serving in
Gallipoli
The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...
and running a laboratory in Egypt. After the war, he was ordained as a priest in the Church of England and became the vicar of
Burpham
Burpham is a rural village and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. The village is on an arm of the River Arun slightly less than northeast of Arundel.
A slight minority of the population qualifies as within the workin ...
.
Life
Beekeeping and writing
Edwardes was an enthusiastic
beekeeper and wrote many books about the subject. He was an active member of the Sussex Beekeepers' Association and attended their meetings regularly. He designed the 'Tickner Edwardes' beehive which took standard British frames but was heavily insulated, and the simplified Unit Hive for commercial beekeeping which had identical
brood chamber
In beekeeping, bee brood or brood refers to the eggs, larvae and pupae of honey bee, honeybees. The brood of Western honey bees develops within a Beehive (beekeeping), bee hive. In man-made, removable frame hives, such as Langstroth hives, each f ...
s and
honey supers.
At that time he lived in the Red Cottage on the main street of Burpham. He also had another cottage as a
literary retreat as he continued to write books and contribute to periodicals. His ''Lift-Luck on Southern Roads'' is thought to be the earliest published account of
hitchhiking
Hitchhiking (also known as thumbing, autostop or hitching) is a means of transportation that is gained by asking individuals, usually strangers, for a ride in their car or other vehicle. The ride is usually, but not always, free.
Nomads hav ...
.
Edwardes wrote a novel ''Tansy'' about a
shepherdess on the
Sussex Downs. This was made into a
silent film in 1921, directed by
Cecil Hepworth
Cecil Milton Hepworth (19 March 1874 – 9 February 1953) was a British film director, producer and screenwriter. He was among the founders of the British film industry and continued making films into the 1920s at his Hepworth Studios. In ...
, also titled ''
Tansy''.
Military service
Edwardes was already an established writer and in his late forties at the outbreak of war. He served in the
RAMC in
Gallipoli
The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...
and Egypt in
The Great War. He ran a laboratory in Cairo and then when posted back to the UK, he served in the 1st London Sanitary Company and then the Anti-Malarial Research Laboratory at Sandwich. He started the war as a private but finished with a commission and the rank of Captain.
Clergyman
He was Rector of
Folkington from 1925 to 1927 and Vicar of
Burpham
Burpham is a rural village and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. The village is on an arm of the River Arun slightly less than northeast of Arundel.
A slight minority of the population qualifies as within the workin ...
in West Sussex from 1927 until his retirement in 1935. He and his wife Kathleen had four children – a son and three daughters. His son, Edward, became an RAF pilot but died in a crash in
Aden
Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 people. ...
in 1928. Tickner himself died on 29 December 1944 and was buried in St Mary's Church in Burpham.
John Cowper Powys
John Cowper Powys (; 8 October 187217 June 1963) was an English philosopher, lecturer, novelist, critic and poet born in Shirley, Derbyshire, where his father was vicar of the parish church in 1871–1879. Powys appeared with a volume of verse ...
was a friend and neighbour in Burpham. He wrote: "Edwardes was a man of meticulous nicety in his literary art. I recollect being confounded by the elaborate craftsmanship with which he laboured; pondering on words, taking words up, as it were, and laying them down, just as he did with the materials of his hives!" Powys especially "liked the toughwood texture of his bodily presence ... His long nose, his opaque, ivory-parchment skin, his tree-root neck, his shy, nervous, wild-animal brown eyes ... He possessed that grave, solid, imperturbable reserve, that stiff pride, mixed with disarming spasms of humility, that have characterized so many of the old-fashioned interpreters of English piety."
Works
*''An Idler in the Wilds'' 1906
*''The Bee-master of Warrilow'' 1907
*''The Lore of the Honey-bee'' 1909
*''Lift-luck on Southern Roads'' 1910
*''Neighbourhood; a year's life in and about an English village'' 1911
*''Side-lights of Nature in Quill and Crayon'' 1912
*''The Honey-Star'' 1913
*''Tansy'' 1914
*''Bees As Rent Payers'' 1914
*''With the RAMC in Egypt'' 1918
*''The Seventh Wave '' 1922
*''Bee-Keeping For All: A Manual Of Honey-Craft'' 1923
*''Bee-Keeping Do's And Dont's'' 1925
*''Sunset Bride '' 1927
*''Life's Silver Lining '' 1927
*''A Country Calendar'' 1928
*''Eve, The Enemy'' 1931
*''A Downland Year'' 1939
References
External links
The Quest For England–
Richard Vobes
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...
searches for his grave
The Red Cottage– one of three houses in Burpham in which Edwardes lived
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwardes, Edward Tickner
1865 births
1944 deaths
British beekeepers
English Anglican priests
English writers
Royal Army Medical Corps officers