Sidney Langford Hinde

Sidney Langford Hinde

Dr. Sidney Langford Hinde, (23 July 1863 - 18 October 1930), Chevalier de l'ordre royal du lion; Membre honoraire de la Société belge de géographie; Medical Officer of the Interior, British East Africa; Late Captain, Congo Free State Forces; was a military medical officer involved in colonial operations in the Congo and East Africa in the 19th century.^[1]

Career

He was the son of Surgeon George Langford Hinde (41st Foot Welsh Regiment) and Harrietta Tudor Rayner, daughter of Edward Charles Rayner, Esq. of England, married in London on 23 November 1861. They had two children, Sidney Langford Hinde, and Rhoda Hinde, (born 1865), both of whom were born in Canada.^[2] In 1895, Hinde was posted to Machakos Fort in the East African Protectorate Service where he was appointed Resident to the Maasai Chief and Collector of Maasailand.^[3]

Hinde was credited with aiding the overthrow of the infamous African slave trader Tippu Tip, and his successor, Sefu.^[4]

A List of names on Mount Kenya#Peaks mountain valley on Mount Kenya is named after him. Hinde Falls on Athi River is also named after the Hindes.^{[Note 1]}

Hildegarde Beatrice Hinde

Sidney was married to anthropologist and zoologist, Hildegarde Beatrice Hinde (née Ginsburg) (1871 - 20 February 1959), who discovered three species of small mammal while in Africa. She wrote several grammars and vocabularies of East African languages as well. He was in the Congo from 1891 to 1894, and in the East African Protectorate (now Kenya) from 1895 to 1915.^[5]

Bibliography

Hinde wrote two books and an article for an ornithological journal:

• La Chute de la domination des arabes du Congo (1897), (translated from the English) Librairie Européene G. Muquardt, Bruxelles
• The Fall of the Congo Arabs (1897), Methuen & Co., London
• "On birds observed near Machako's Station, in British East Africa", in The Ibis, Vol. 4 (1898), Gurney & Jackson, London
• The Last of the Masai (1901) (with Hildegarde Beatrice Hinde), William Heinemann, London

Notes

1. The peaks of Mount Kenya have been given names from three different sources. Firstly, several Maasai chieftains have been commemorated, with names such as Batian, Nelion and Lenana. These names were suggested by Mackinder, on the suggestion of Sidney Langford Hinde, who was the resident officer in Maasailand at the time of Mackinder's expedition.

References

1. Google Books (2010)
2. Archiver Rootsweb
3. Sidney Langford Hinde (1901) The Last of the Masai, William Heinemann, London
4. "Arabs of the Congo" (May 29, 1897) New York Times
5. Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins, Michael Grayson (2009) The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals, Johns Hopkins University Press ISBN 0-8018-9304-6