Alexander Hosie

Sir Alexander Hosie (1853–1925) was a Scottish diplomat, traveller and botanical collector.^[1]

Early life

He was born at Inverurie where his father was farming, the second child of Alexander Hosie (died 1869) and his wife Jean Anderson. He was brought up in Aberdeen, and was educated at Old Aberdeen Grammar School. He graduated from King's College, Aberdeen in 1872.^[1]

In China

Joining the consular service, Hosie in 1876 travelled to China with John Newell Jordan.^[1] He was trained as an interpreter in Beijing, and then was in Shanghai. In 1882 he was posted to Chongqing in Sichuan, where he travelled extensively.^[2] He encountered William Mesny at Chengdu in 1883.^[3]

A series of further junior postings to Chinese cities, during which Hosie married, led up to a consular position in Wuzhou.^[1]^[4] In 1893 he wrote a commercial report on Formosa.^[5]

In 1900 Hosie took a boat journey from Khabarovsk to Blagoveshchensk, along the river boundary between the Chinese and Russian Empires.^[6] Appointed first consul-general at Chengdu in 1903, he journeyed to the eastern border of Tibet.^[1] He found that the British expedition to Tibet of this period had in East Tibet created serious disturbance and tension.^[7] At the stele in a mountain pass that by tradition marked the boundary of Sichuan and Kham, he met with a confrontation between Chinese and Khampa soldiers.^[8] In 1907 Hosie received a knighthood.^[1]

Hosie was the British delegate at the Shanghai International Opium Commission of 1909. He retired in 1912.^[1]

Learned societies

Hosie became a member of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1877, and was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.^[4]^[9]

Collector

Hosie was a prolific collector of botanical specimens, for Kew Gardens and other institutions. The plant genus Hosiea and tree Ormosia hosiei were named for Hosie by Kew.^[1]

Works

Three Years In Western China (1890), introduction by Archibald John Little.^[10] It deals with the provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan.
Manchuria: Its Peoples, Resources and Recent History (1901)^[11]
Mr Hosie's Journey to Tibet, 1904: A Report by Mr A. Hosie, His Majesty's Consul at Chengtu, on a Journey from Chengtu to the Eastern Frontier of Tibet^[12]
On the Trail of the Opium Poppy (2 vols., 1914)^[13]^[14]
Szechwan, its products, industries and resources (1922)^[15]

Ethnography

Three Years in Western China included a linguistic report on the Lolo people, and on the Phö indigenous language of Guizhou.^[16] Hosie took an interest in the Miao people and indigenous groups in China generally, and noted that their study had been neglected.^[17]

Family

Hosie married firstly in 1887 Florence Lindsay (died 1905), daughter of John Lindsay of Aberdeen; they had one son, the cricketer Alec Hosie.^[1]^[18] He married secondly, in 1913, Dorothea Soothill (1885–1959), daughter of William Edward Soothill.^[1]

Notes

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Reynolds, K. D. "Hosie, Sir Alexander (1853–1925)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34005. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
↑ Troelstra, Anne S. (1 June 2017). Bibliography of Natural History Travel Narratives. Brill. p. 210. ISBN 978-90-04-34378-8.
↑ Bretschneider, E. (1898). History of European Botanical Discoveries in China. Sampson Low, Marston and Co. p. 746.
1 2 Who's Who in the Far East/HOSIE, Alexander – via Wikisource.
↑ Aoyagi, Akiko; Shurtleff, William (30 October 2016). History of Soybean Crushing: Soy Oil and Soybean Meal (980-2016): Extensively Annotated Bibliography and Sourcebook. Soyinfo Center. p. 7. ISBN 978-1-928914-89-1.
↑ Lary, Diana (1 November 2011). The Chinese State at the Borders. UBC Press. p. 159. ISBN 978-0-7748-4087-3.
↑ Palace, Wendy (2 August 2004). The British Empire and Tibet 1900-1922. Routledge. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-134-27863-3.
↑ Relyea, Scott (2015). "Yokes of Gold and Threads of Silk: Sino-Tibetan competition for authority in early twentieth century Kham". Modern Asian Studies. 49 (4): 981. ISSN 0026-749X.
↑ "Hosie, Alexander — China und der Westen". www.e-aoi.uzh.ch.
↑ Hosie, Alexander (1890). Three Years In Western China. London: George Philip & Son.
↑ Hosie, Alexander (1901). Manchuria Its Peoples Resources And Recent History. London: Methuen & Co.
↑ Hosie, Sir Alexander (2001). Mr Hosie's Journey to Tibet, 1904: A Report by Mr A. Hosie, His Majesty's Consul at Chengtu, on a Journey from Chengtu to the Eastern Frontier of Tibet. Stationery Office. ISBN 978-0-11-702467-0.
↑ Hosie, Alexander (1914). On the trail of the opium poppy; a narrative of travel in the chief opium-producing provinces of China. Vol. I. London: G. Philip & Son.
↑ Hosie, Alexander (1914). On the trail of the opium poppy; a narrative of travel in the chief opium-producing provinces of China. Vol. II. London: G. Philip & Son.
↑ Hosie, Alexander (1922). Szechwan, its products, industries and resources. Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh.
↑ Ireland, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and (1891). Journal - Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. p. 366.
↑ Tapp, Nicholas; Lee, Gary Yia (1 November 2010). The Hmong of Australia: Culture and Diaspora. ANU E Press. p. 150 note 27. ISBN 978-1-921666-95-7.
↑ "Cricketer Weds". Hampshire Telegraph. 11 July 1930. p. 15.

[ODNB-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Reynolds, K. D. "Hosie, Sir Alexander (1853–1925)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34005. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)

[2] Troelstra, Anne S. (1 June 2017). Bibliography of Natural History Travel Narratives. Brill. p. 210. ISBN 978-90-04-34378-8.

[3] Bretschneider, E. (1898). History of European Botanical Discoveries in China. Sampson Low, Marston and Co. p. 746.

[WWFE-4] 1 2 Who's Who in the Far East/HOSIE, Alexander – via Wikisource.

[5] Aoyagi, Akiko; Shurtleff, William (30 October 2016). History of Soybean Crushing: Soy Oil and Soybean Meal (980-2016): Extensively Annotated Bibliography and Sourcebook. Soyinfo Center. p. 7. ISBN 978-1-928914-89-1.

[6] Lary, Diana (1 November 2011). The Chinese State at the Borders. UBC Press. p. 159. ISBN 978-0-7748-4087-3.

[7] Palace, Wendy (2 August 2004). The British Empire and Tibet 1900-1922. Routledge. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-134-27863-3.

[8] Relyea, Scott (2015). "Yokes of Gold and Threads of Silk: Sino-Tibetan competition for authority in early twentieth century Kham". Modern Asian Studies. 49 (4): 981. ISSN 0026-749X.

[9] "Hosie, Alexander — China und der Westen". www.e-aoi.uzh.ch.

[10] Hosie, Alexander (1890). Three Years In Western China. London: George Philip & Son.

[11] Hosie, Alexander (1901). Manchuria Its Peoples Resources And Recent History. London: Methuen & Co.

[12] Hosie, Sir Alexander (2001). Mr Hosie's Journey to Tibet, 1904: A Report by Mr A. Hosie, His Majesty's Consul at Chengtu, on a Journey from Chengtu to the Eastern Frontier of Tibet. Stationery Office. ISBN 978-0-11-702467-0.

[13] Hosie, Alexander (1914). On the trail of the opium poppy; a narrative of travel in the chief opium-producing provinces of China. Vol. I. London: G. Philip & Son.

[14] Hosie, Alexander (1914). On the trail of the opium poppy; a narrative of travel in the chief opium-producing provinces of China. Vol. II. London: G. Philip & Son.

[15] Hosie, Alexander (1922). Szechwan, its products, industries and resources. Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh.

[16] Ireland, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and (1891). Journal - Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. p. 366.

[17] Tapp, Nicholas; Lee, Gary Yia (1 November 2010). The Hmong of Australia: Culture and Diaspora. ANU E Press. p. 150 note 27. ISBN 978-1-921666-95-7.

[18] "Cricketer Weds". Hampshire Telegraph. 11 July 1930. p. 15.

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