Hulke Family

JOHN WHITAKER HULKE was born in the year 1830, and died on Tuesday, the 19th of February, 1895. The immediate cause of his death was broncho-pneumonia following influenza, and apparently caused by a chill taken when attending, in the early morning, a serious case at the Middlesex Hospital. Mr. Hulke was the son of a well-known surgeon of Deal, in which town his family had resided for several generations, and where his mortal remains are now laid to rest. Mr. Hulke received his early education at a private boarding school, where it appears he was very unhappy, and he was therefore quite ready to appreciate the kindness which, notwithstanding the roughness of school life, he experienced at the Moravian College at Neuweid, where his education was continued from 1843 to 1845 ; it was here that he gained his intimate knowledge of the German language, and the groundwork of his acquaintance with natural history ; here also, in the Eifel district, his interest in geology was first awakened.
Returning to England, he studied at King's College School during 1846 and 1847, entering the medical department of that college in 1849, where for the following few years he underwent his medical training.
In 1855 he was attached to the medical staff of the General Hospital in the Crimea, and in March of that year was doing duty in the English Hopital at Smyrna. Here the medical officers appear to have had comparitively comfortable quarters, but often very few patients. Some excitement was kept up by a band of brigands roaming the neighbourhood, and on one occasion, a doctor of the town, having been carried off by them in the hope of ransom, Mr. Hulke was among the first to start to the rescue. In September he left Smyrna for the camp before Sebastopol in the hope of gaining more experience, and here, during the winter of 1855-56, owing to the severe climate and other causes, he had a very trying time, on more than one occasion narrowly escaping the shots of the Russians, but, as he himself has said, gaining in those few months years of experience. Letters sent home to Deal at this time contain graphic accounts of his surroundings, but no word of complaint of the hardships undergone.
On returning to England he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, and received the appointment of Assistant-Surgeon to the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields, in 1857. His well-known and classical essay on 'Diseases of the Retina' was written soon afterwards, and was awarded the Jacksonian Prize of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1859. Not long after this he published a treatise on the ophthalmoscope, an instrument in use in Germany, but at that time not known to English practitioners. Besides other works relating to diseases of the eye, Mr. Hulke made many contributions to general surgery, which were published in the 'Medicochirurgical Transactions,' and elsewhere.
In the year 1862 Mr. Hulke was appointed Surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital, and it was here that the chief of his life's work may be said to have been accomplished. His skill as an operator became widely known, while the keen interest which he took in his patients, and his kindly sympathy with them were best appreciated by those who in their trouble and sickness were so fortunate as to be under his care. He eventually became senior surgeon to this hospital, a post he retained until the time of his death.
In 1876 he was appointed Examiner to the Royal College of Surgeons, and in 1880 became a member of the Court of Examiners ; in 1881 he was elected a member of the Council, in 1888, a Vice-President, and in 1893 President, which latter position he held at the time of his death. In 1883 he was President of both the Pathological and Geological Societies.
Mr. Hulke was admitted to the Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1867, his claim being based exclusively on researches relating to the anatomy and physiology of the retina in man and the lower animals, particularly the reptiles. These were embodied in two papers in the 'Philosophical Transactions' ("On the Anatomy of the Fovea centralis of the Human Retina," and "On the Chameleon's Retina"), and in a paper on the "Retina of Amphibia and Reptiles," in the first volume of the 'Journal of Anatomy and Physiology.' These are characterised by patient and conscientious minuteness in the working out and description of details and cautious reserve in drawing inferences. Probably the most important and permanently valuable of Mr. Hulke's researches was the one relating to the retina of the chameleon, which the abundant material at his disposal enabled him to elaborate in a more complete maner than had before been possible.
In judging of the value of histological work done nearly a generation ago, it must be remembered that at that time the minute anatomist had to work alone. Hulke was the first in this country to follow in the footsteps of Max Schultze and Heinrich Müller - the first to employ those, at that time, new methods of research which have rendered it possible to acquire that relatively perfect knowledge of the fine structure of the organs of special sense which we now possess. If the work of Hulke and his contemporaries is unknown, as no doubt it is to the student of the present day, it is not because it was unimpotant, but rather because the anatomical facts then made out for the first time with very imperfect means of investigation, have been presented to him in sharper outline by men who, after all, only built on the foundations laid by their predecessors. Hulke very soon after he became a Fellow of the Royal Society transferred his allegiance to geology, between which and his profession as a consulting surgeon his energies were thenceforthy to be divided. Had he continued his anatomical studies he would without doubt have attained to the foremost rank among physioloical anatomists.
During the quarter of a century which followed his first contributions to geological science, Mr. Hulke found leisure to apply himself to research in this field, notwithstanding his constantly increasing practice. He did so to so good a purpose that he became a palæontologist of no ordinary merit. His knowledge of comparative anatomy, and especially of osteology, enabled him rapidly to grasp the meaning of structures presented by the remains of fossil vertebrates ; and this, combined with a naturally keen perception and a rigid adherence to facts, soon caused his opinion on palæontological matters to be sought, and held in the highest estimation.
It was the fossil Reptilia which more especially occupied Mr. Hulke's attention, and his numerous papers on their osteology are a monument to his industry. Many of the fossils which he described were, in part at least, freed from the matrix by his own facile chisel ; and in this mechanical work, as he himself has said, he often found relaxation when his mind was over-wrought by professional anxieties.
Mr. Hulke's well-earned vacations were often spent at localities of geological interest, more especially with a view to working out the fossils which might be obtained. For this purpose he paid many visits to Brook, in the Isle of Wight, from whence have come many specimens of Wealden Dinosauria ; near here also, at Brixton, was preserved the unique collection of these Wealden reptiles, made by the Rev. W. Fox. For many years Mr. Hulke was the only palæontologist who had free access to this collection ; and he did much good work in bringing to light its hidden treasures, which otherwise remained almost unknown until after the death of their owner, when they were transferred to the British Museum.
In the year 1868 Mr. Hulke was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, and from that time onwards the pages of the Quarterly Journal of that Society were frequently enriched by his writings. No fewer than six of his papers were published in the two volumes which followed the year of his election, and these with one exception were descriptions of Saurian remains from the Kimmeridge clay of Dorset. Several other papers on reptiles from the same locality appeared in subsequent volumes ; and many contributions to the osteology of this interesting group of reptiles have appeared in the 'Quarterly Journal' of the Geological Society, and in the 'Philosophical Transactions' of the Royal Society.
Our first knowledge of the cranium of Iguanodon was due to Mr. Hulke's work upon a specimen from the Isle of Wight, which did not include facial bones, and the affinities of which it was by no means easy to determine.
In 1873 and 1874 he made additions to our knowledge of the small Wealden Dinosaur, which had been named by Professor Huxley Hypsilophodon Foxii ; and in 1882 a still more important memoir on the same species was published in the 'Philosophical Transactions.'
In 1874 and 1876 Mr. Hulke showed that a certain bone of Iguanodon which had been regarded as a scapula, was really a part of the pelvis ; and, indeed, it proved to be the remarkable pubis of that reptile, which so nearly resembles that of a bird.
In 1879 the two genera, Poikilopleuron and Megalosaurus, were shown by Hr. Hulke to be one and the same Dinosaurian genus. In the same year he described the remains of a new Wealden Dinosaur under the name of Vectisaurus Valdensis ; and in 1880 he made known one of the most perfect Iguanodons discovered in this country which had been found in the Kimmeridge clay of Cumnor ; this was named Iguanodon Prestwichii.
In the following year there appeared in the 'Philosophical Transactions' Mr. Hulke's memoir on Polocanthus Foxii. This remarkable Dinosaur, the name for which had been suggested by Sir R. Owen, has a large dermal shield spread out above the iliac bones in such a way as to form a kind of carapace over the lumbar and sacral regions ; besides this, large spines and scutes were attached to other parts of the body.
Mr. Hulke's presidential addresses to the Geological Society, 1883-4, formed an important contribution to our knowledge of reptilian osteology, and especially threw light on the structure of the shoulder girdle in Plesiosaurs and their allies.
The Iguanodont remains found in England have been more or less fragmentary, and discoveries made by other workers helping to elucidate their structures were hailed by Hr. Hulke with satisfaction ; no one more heartily rejoiced than he did when the rich treasures of the Belgian Wealden rocks were brought to light by the geologists of that country, and they made the discovery of the series of magnificently perfect Iguanodon skeletons, several of which now adorn the Museum of Natural History at Brussels.
Mr. Hulke was for many years on the Council of the Geological Society , and the high esteem in which he was held by the leading geologists of the day, as well as their thorough appreciation of his palæontological work, found expression by their electing him, in 1882, to fill the Presidential chair of the Society, and, in 1887, by their presenting him with the Wollaston Gold Medal, the greatest honours it was in their power to bestow. In 1891 he was elected Foreign Secretary of the Geological Society, which office he still held at the time of his decease.
Beloved and respected by all who knew him, Mr. Huke will long be lamented as a Christian gentleman.

It had been customary for the Duke's valet, Kendall, to call his Grace about six o'clock every morning. On Tuesday morning, Kendall, on knocking at his Grace's door a quarter of an hour after the usual time, did not receive the customary response. After waiting a few moments, he fancied he heard a strange kind of noise in the Duke's apartment. On opening the door, the Duke appeared to recognise him as usual, and did not complain of illness. Kendall, however, soon observed that his Grace was restless and uncomfortable ; and, in a few moments, the fact of the noble Duke's illness was made apparent by his Grace exclaiming, somewhat abruptly, "Send for Mr. Hulke." A messenger was instantly despatched to the residence of Mr. Hulke, a medical resident in the town of Deal, who has been accustomed to attend the Duke when at Walmer. Mr. Hulke arrived at the castle at twenty minutes to eight o'clock. The Duke was then reclining on his bed, and on his introduction, his Grace entered into conversation with him in a perfectly calm and collected manner, observing that he was suffering from an affection of the chest and stomach. The doctor prescribed forthwith, and informed Lord Charles Wellesley that he did not consider there were any dangerous symptoms in his Grace's condition ; adding, that he had seen him much worse on former occasions. Mr. Hulke was then alluding to an attack of a similar description years since.
Mr. Hulke left the castle for Deal at eight o'clock, and he had not been home more than a quarter of an hour, when a second messenger arrived with the information that the Duke had been seized with what was described as an epileptic fit. On this occasion Mr. Hulke was accompanied by Dr. M'Arthur of Walmer, and Mr. Hulke, jun. They found that the Duke had been seized with a fit of the nature described, and that his servants had already adopted some remedial measures, by the application of mustard poultices. The medical gentlemen adopted every remedy that science could suggest, but the attack failed to yield to their professional skill. His Grace, from the moment he was seized with the fit, became speechless; but by gestures he appeared to desire a removal to a bed-chair, in which he was placed in a sitting posture, and so he continued until twenty minutes past three o'clock, when he expired as quietly as if falling into a slumber. There was present at this solemn moment Lord and Lady Charles Wellesley, the three medical gentlemen, Mr. Collins, the house-steward, and Kendall, his Grace's valet.

The Hulke Family

Ann (Hulke) Hetherland

Ann Hulke

Ann (Hulke) Dixon

Anne Hulke

Anne (_____) Hulke

Anne (_____) Hulke

Anne Hulke

Anne Hulke

Anne Hulke

Anthony Hulke

Anthony Hulke

Benjamin Hulke

Benjamin Hulke

Benjamin Hulke

Benjamin Hulke

Benjamin Hulke

Benjamin Hulke

Benjamin Hulke

Benjamin Hulke

Benjamin Hulke

Bertha Backhouse (Hulke) Leney

Catherine Hulke

Celeb Hulke

Charles Hulke

Charles Hulke

Charlotte Backhouse (Hulke) Hannam

Dora Backhouse (Hulke, Noble) McFarlane

Edith Backhouse (Hulke) Spreat

Edward Hulke

Eleanor (_____) Hulke

Eleanor Hulke

Elizabeth Hulke

Elizabeth (_____) Hulke

Elizabeth Hulke

Elizabeth (Hulke) Snoswell

Elizabeth Hulke

Elizabeth (Hulke) Fido

Elizabeth (Hulke, Dixon) Hadley

Elizabeth Hulke

Elizabeth (Hulke) Hulke

Elizabeth Hulke

Elizabeth King Hulke

Ellen (_____) Hulke

Ellen (Hulke) Hockaway

Ellen Noakes Powell Hulke

Emily Jane Hulke

Emma Hulke

Ford Breame Hulke

Frances (Hulke) Simmons

Frances Hulke

Frances Hulke

Frances Charlotte Hulke

Frederick Thomas Hulke

Frederick Backhouse Hulke

George Hulke

George Hulke

George Hulke

George Hulke

Grace Hulke

Henly Hulke

Hercules Hulke

Jane Hulke

Jane (_____) Hulke

Jessie Backhouse (Hulke) Burnell

Joan Hulke

Joan Hulke

John Hulke

John Hulke

John Hulke

John Hulke

John Hulke

John Hulke

John Hulke

John Hulke

John Hulke

John Hulke

John Hulke

John Hulke

John Hulke