|
THE PRE-RAPHAELITE BROTHERHOOD
By Bill Fevyer I am afraid this title is not an accurate description of this article, but I could not resist using it! It all began many years ago in a second hand bookshop in Richmond. I cannot remember the name of the book, but it definitely concerned the Pre-Raphaelites, and whilst looking through it I came across an illustration of a man wearing a Royal Humane Society Medal. I did not buy the book or even take a note of the title, actions that would later cost the Exeter Reference Library dear. At this point in time we jump forward about ten years. I was in a well known medal dealers snuffling through a box of mundane material when I came across a British War and Victory pair with a 1911 Delhi Durbar. The latter seemed to have a slightly rounded edge – no, let’s face it – it was renamed! The British War and Victory medals were, however, crisply named ‘CAPT. H.L. HOLMAN-HUNT’ (as they say "worthy of further in depth research"). I purchased the pair and the Delhi Durbar was included at scrap value. I put them aside and thought no more about them. Now we jump to present times – I was recently in our Reference Library and I decided to see what I could discover of H.L. Holman-Hunt so I tried Who Was Who and there he was under ‘Holman-Hunt, Hilary Lushington, CIE, MICE, MIME, CMZS’, 1879 – 1949, son of the late W. Holman-Hunt OM, DCL. He was listed as working in Burma and his designation was Chief Engineer and Secretary to the Government, and amongst other things he is noted as being awarded the Royal Humane Society Bronze Medal in 1907
Now I happen to have a copy of the RHS Annual Report for 1907 and Case No. 35674 is reported as follows: "On 22nd September 1907, a man in some way fell into the river Aare at Thonne, Switzerland. Major H.C. Holman, Indian Army, who was present, at once jumped in and succeeded in saving him. Awarded the Bronze Medal". The next task was an easy one (or so I thought) and that was to scrutinise all the books available through Exeter Library to find the illustration I last saw at Richmond. There were too many. The logistics of the problem were too great, even Exeter Librarians must have their limits. As a consolation I found many illustrations of Hilary Lushington by his father but all as a cherubic child and not one of the proud wearer of the Bronze Royal Humane Society Medal. The picture below ‘Master Hilary – The Tracer’ was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery, 1887, with the following quotation in the catalogue, "Be sure before painting to make a correct outline" (taken from the Walker Art Gallery catalogue, 1969).
 Finally, just as I had finished writing this article, Exeter Library found for me the photograph from that book in Richmond, My Grandmothers & I, and this is illustrated below.  (Hilary Holman-Hunt (Papa) and Holman-Hunt (Grandpa Holman))
Now it would appear that the Royal Humane Society Medal is named to Major H.C. Holman not H.L. Holman-Hunt, but either will do for me. So look through your collections to help an ex-Secretary of the LSARS with a broken group. Acknowledgements:
|
