Hubert Whittell

Hubert Massey Whittell OBE (24 March 1883 – 7 February 1954) was a British army officer, and later an Australian farmer and ornithologist who compiled a history and bibliography of ornithology in Australia from its origins until the mid-20th century.

Whittell was born at Stratford in Essex, England, now part of Greater London. His father, an engineer and naval architect was the Bombay representative of Lloyd's of London, and Whittell grew up in both India and England, as well as attending school for a year in Germany in 1894. In 1899 he began studying medicine at Edinburgh University. In 1899, Whittell donated to Edinburgh Museum a specimen of an Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) taken in County Mayo, Ireland. His address was then given as 53, Merchiston Crescent, Edinburgh. In August 1901, he made an ornithological expedition to Orkney and collected a specimen of a red-necked phalarope (Phalaropus hyperboreus) from Stromness. However, in 1903 he gave up his medical studies to pursue a career in the British Army.

In September 1904, after service with the 2nd Battalion the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry (Channel Islands Militia), Whittell passed a competitive examination and in December was gazetted a Second Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion the Royal Sussex Regiment, with which he was posted to India in 1905. In November 1907 he was promoted lieutenant, and transferred to the Indian Army, joining the 56th Punjabi Rifles, being promoted to captain in 1913. He studied Urdu, Pushtu and Persian, collected old Indian coins, went big game hunting and published papers on local history. He married Sydney Margaret O'Hara Hodgkins in 1911 in Bombay. Following the outbreak of World War I he served in France, Belgium and Egypt for the duration of the war, after which he returned to India to serve in the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919. He was twice Mentioned in Despatches and was promoted to major. In June 1921, while serving with the Supplies and Transport Corps of the Indian Army, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Military Division). In 1926 he retired from the Indian Army and emigrated to Australia.

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