One of the cool things about researching about plants is the interesting stories behind the plants and the botanists behind them that emerge.
Today, I read about the Hopea sangal Korth., a story Prof. Leo Tan told us before for the Natural Heritage of Singapore module. The story of how Joseph Lai and his friends discovered this majestic tree at 46 Halton Road in Changi in November 2002, estimated to be at least 150 years old and shortly after, discovered that their precious tree was illegally chopped down.
The story didn't end there. The property company responsible for such a heinous crime, DTZ Debenham Tie Leung, was fined $8,000 and paid $76,035 to the state as compensation for chopping tree down in gazetted conservation area and for failing to seek NParks’ approval before felling tree respectively.
Dr. Shaun Lam rescued the fruits of the fallen tree and the 20 offsprings were nurtured by NParks.
And the wood of the tree was made into a sculpture and displayed at the Singapore Zoo.
One tree, so many stories.
And then I discovered a dusty book of great repute - Foresters' Manual of Dipterocarps and I took note of the author Colin Fraser Symington's lifespan - 1905-1943. Knowing a little of the history of the book, how the Japanese 'men of science' actually helped to preserve and published these books during the war time, against authority, after the passing of the author, made me all the more curious how the author died.
(I have this fascination with P.O.W.s and things related to war.)
Was he interned in Malaya? Did he die here? What exactly happened.
And it was so sad to find out.
"Symington himself escaped and eventually arrived in Nigeria. There, in a state of depression, he ended his own life in 1943."
Another interesting thing I found is in a letter attached to the book Dipterocarps of Sabah (North Borneo) by W. Meijer and G. H. S. Wood. In a letter addressed to Dr. Hsuan Keng, Lecturer of Botany of the date 6th July 1965 (hey! It was just shortly before Independence!), Dr. Meijer writes that he gives Dr. HS the book and hope for an exchange of his thesis and any further publications he will produce.
Cool. :)
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2 comments:
RE: your blogs of 25 & 29 Dec 2009 on CF Symington.
My wife is the daughter of CF. She has always known that he took his own life in Nigeria in 1943 but did not know it was public knowledge.
While doing research on him last year for our family tree, I came upon your blog.
You wrote on his death using quotation marks but you did not identify where the quote originated. My wife has his obituary written by Kenneth Airy Shaw but he did not mention that Symington took his own life.
My wife would appreciate it very much if you would let her know how you happen to have that information.
Thank you in advance,
D.W.
Dear Doug,
I just realized I have comments to my posts. I had never checked. Forgive the late reply.
I'm extremely sorry for your wife's loss.
I also regret not properly citing that information because I can no longer remember the source.
For the post of 29 Dec 2009, I have noted the source on that page.
I noted that botanists like to include personal references or experiences in the text of their books or journal articles. Sometimes I find obituaries written by friends of those who have passed online as well. That text could have originated from one of the books from the library of my former laboratory.
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