Victor William Williams Saunders Purcell CMG (26 January 1896 – 2 January 1965) was a British colonial

public servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

, historian, poet, and

Sinologist Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilizatio ...

in Malaya (now

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

). He was educated at Bancroft's School and joined the British Army as an officer in 1914. He fought in France in the

First World War 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 ...

and was severely wounded in combat on two occasions. He was taken prisoner by the Germans in 1918 and spent the remainder of the war in a POW camp. After the war, Purcell entered

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

under the veteran admissions scheme to study history. At Cambridge, he was editor of ''

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story's supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make ...

'' and secretary of The Cambridge Union. He joined the Malayan Civil Service in 1921 and chose to specialize in Chinese affairs. After some years of language study in China, he embarked on a twenty-five year career in the Chinese secretariat of the MCS. In 1926 he spent seven months as

District Officer The District Officer (abbreviated to D.O.), was a commissioned officer of one of the colonial governments of the British Empire, from the mid-1930s also a member of the Colonial Service of the United Kingdom, who was responsible for a District of ...

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in the Indian Ocean, with wide-ranging but largely undemanding responsibilities in that remote mining community (Magistrate, Assistant District Judge, Port Officer, Port Health Officer, Postal Agent, Assistant Protector of the Chinese, and other responsibilities). He became particularly interested in the topic of Chinese education and in 1939 returned to Cambridge where he wrote a dissertation on the topic, drawing on his experiences among the Chinese community in Malaya, that was accepted for a Ph.D. He returned to Southeast Asia during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and was involved in information and publicity. He finished the war with the rank of colonel, having served with

Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma Admiral of the Fleet (Royal Navy), Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (born Prince Louis of Battenberg; 25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979), commonly known as Lord Mountbatten, was ...

in the South East Asia Command at Ceylon. From 1949 he lectured in Far Eastern History at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

and gained the degrees of

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and Litt.D (Cantab.) During this period he published a mock epic poem ''The Sweeniad'' under the pseudonym Myra Buttle (Secker & Warburg 1958), which parodied the style of

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

and which was subject to a long, mostly favorable article by the eminent American

man of letters An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the world of culture, either ...

Edmund Wilson Edmund Wilson Jr. (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer, literary critic, and journalist. He is widely regarded as one of the most important literary critics of the 20th century. Wilson began his career as a journalist, writing ...

. In 1978 he was honoured by a

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. In 1970 he had a collection of essays in his memory.

Bibliography

*Victor Purcell: Early Penang, Penang 1928 *Victor Purcell: The Further Side of No Man's Land, London 1929 *Victor Purcell: An Index to the Chinese Written Language on a New Non-radical System with Reference to the Dictionaries of Kanghsi and Giles, Singapore 1929 *Victor Purcell: The Spirit of Chinese Poetry, and original essay, Singapore 1929 *Victor Purcell: Problems of Chinese Education, London 1936 *Victor Purcell: The Dog and the Don, Singapore 1938 *Victor Purcell: Chinese Evergreen, the story of a journey across south China, London 1938 *Victor Purcell: Cadmus: The Poet and the World, Melbourne 1944 *Victor Purcell: Malaya: Outline of a Colony, London 1946 *Victor Purcell: The Chinese in Malaya, London 1948; (Chinese translation), Singapore 1950 *Victor Purcell: The Position of the Chinese in Southeast Asia, New York 1950 *Victor Purcell: The Chinese in Southeast Asia, London 1951; 2nd impression 1952; new edition 1964; (Chinese translation), Taipei 1966 *Victor Purcell: The Colonial Period in Southeast Asia, a historical sketch (mimeograph), New York 1953 *Victor Purcell: Malaya: Communist or Free, London 1954 *Victor Purcell: The Chinese in Modern Malaya, Singapore 1956 *Victor Purcell: The Sweeniad, signed Myra Buttle, New York: Sagamore Press, 1957, London 1958. (The identification of this pseudonym was published by

in 1966 in ''The Bit Between my Teeth.'') *Victor Purcell: Toynbee in Elysium, a fantasy in one act, signed Myra Buttle, London 1959 *Victor Purcell: The Bitches's Brew or the Plot against Bertrand Russell, signed Myra Buttle, London 1960 *Victor Purcell: The Revolution of Southeast Asia, London 1962 *Victor Purcell: The Boxer Uprising, a background study, Cambridge 1963 *Victor Purcell: Malaysia, London 1965 *Victor Purcell: Memoirs of a Malayan Official, London 1965 *Victor Purcell: South and East Asia since 1800, Cambridge 1965 *Hai Ding Chiang: ''Sino-British mercantile relations in Singapore's entrepot trade, 1870-1915''. In: J. Chen und N. Tarling (Hrsg.): ''Studies in the social history of China and Southeast Asia: essays in memory of Victor Purcell''. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK 1970. S. 247–266.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Purcell, Victor British orientalists British sinologists 1896 births 1965 deaths Pseudonymous writers British people in British Malaya Malayan Civil Service officers Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge