DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16243#0013
INTRODUCTION
Herbert Hope Risley, only son of Rev. John Holford Risley,
Rector of Akeley, Bucks, and Fanny Elton, his wife, daughter
of John Hope, late of the Bengal Medical Service, was born on
4th January, 1851. He belonged to one of the " Founder's Kin"
families of Winchester. Most of his family, including his
father, were, during the last two or three centuries, educated at
Winchester, which he entered in 1864. He had a distinguished
school career, winning the Goddard Scholarship and the Moore
Stevens Divinity Prize in 1868, and the King's Gold Medal for
the Latin Essay in 1869.
On 15th October, 1869, he entered New College, Oxford;
took a Second Class in the School of Law and Modern History,
Michaelmas Term, 1872, and received his B.A. degree in January,
1873. He had been selected for an appointment in the Civil
Service of India in April, 1871. As the Warden, Rev. W. A.
Spooner, D.D., writes : " This early selection to the Indian Civil
Service partly explains and partly accounts for his comparative
failure in the Schools. His great friends in College were
Mr. Keith Jopp, who also entered the Indian Civil Service, and
Dr. G. B. Longstaff. All three of them, if my memory does not
play me false, were very keen members of the University
Volunteer Corps." Mr. Keith Jopp confirms the accuracy of
the Warden's recollections, and adds that "even then he had
charming manners and great powers of writing."
On reaching India in 1873 Risley had the good fortune to
start his service in the district of Midnapur, part of which
fringes on the plateau of Chota Nagpur, a land of hills and
forests, situated to the south of the Ganges valley, the home of
several interesting tribes whose culture was of a very primitive
type. Here he gained his first opportunity for work in
Anthropology. His interest in the forest tribes continued
during his life, and it was due to his initiative that the late
Herbert Hope Risley, only son of Rev. John Holford Risley,
Rector of Akeley, Bucks, and Fanny Elton, his wife, daughter
of John Hope, late of the Bengal Medical Service, was born on
4th January, 1851. He belonged to one of the " Founder's Kin"
families of Winchester. Most of his family, including his
father, were, during the last two or three centuries, educated at
Winchester, which he entered in 1864. He had a distinguished
school career, winning the Goddard Scholarship and the Moore
Stevens Divinity Prize in 1868, and the King's Gold Medal for
the Latin Essay in 1869.
On 15th October, 1869, he entered New College, Oxford;
took a Second Class in the School of Law and Modern History,
Michaelmas Term, 1872, and received his B.A. degree in January,
1873. He had been selected for an appointment in the Civil
Service of India in April, 1871. As the Warden, Rev. W. A.
Spooner, D.D., writes : " This early selection to the Indian Civil
Service partly explains and partly accounts for his comparative
failure in the Schools. His great friends in College were
Mr. Keith Jopp, who also entered the Indian Civil Service, and
Dr. G. B. Longstaff. All three of them, if my memory does not
play me false, were very keen members of the University
Volunteer Corps." Mr. Keith Jopp confirms the accuracy of
the Warden's recollections, and adds that "even then he had
charming manners and great powers of writing."
On reaching India in 1873 Risley had the good fortune to
start his service in the district of Midnapur, part of which
fringes on the plateau of Chota Nagpur, a land of hills and
forests, situated to the south of the Ganges valley, the home of
several interesting tribes whose culture was of a very primitive
type. Here he gained his first opportunity for work in
Anthropology. His interest in the forest tribes continued
during his life, and it was due to his initiative that the late