Hubert Lynes | |
---|---|
Born | 27 November 1874 |
Died | 10 November 1942 Holyhead, Wales | (aged 67)
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Service/ | Royal Navy |
Years of service | 1888–1919, 1939–1941 |
Rank | Rear Admiral |
Commands held | HMS Venus HMS Cadmus HMS Penelope HMS Warspite |
Battles/wars | First World War |
Awards | Companion of the Order of the Bath Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George |
Rear Admiral Hubert Lynes, CB CMG (27 November 1874 – 10 November 1942) was a British admiral whose First World War service was notable for his direction of the Zeebrugge and Ostend raids designed to neutralise the German-held port of Bruges, which was used as a raiding base against the British coastline by Imperial German Navy surface and submarine raiders. Throughout his service life and during retirement, Lynes was a noted and experienced ornithologist who contributed to numerous books on the subject and was in his lifetime considered the leading expert on African birds.
A highly experienced ornithologist, Lynes developed a boyhood interest in nature into a scientific study of birdlife during his time in the navy. Whilst in the Mediterranean during the first years of the twentieth century, Lynes made extensive notes on migratory patterns of European and African birds and made the first of twelve expeditions he would make to Africa to study its native birdlife. These observations were published in ornithological magazines The Ibis and British Birds and he was elected a member of the British Ornithologists' Union. He would continue to contribute to these journals throughout his life.[3]
In 1910 whilst on home duty, Lynes participated in an expedition to the Pyrenees and whilst stationed in China made numerous observations of the birds of the region. These notes and collections were however all lost in the torpedoing of the Penelope in 1916.[3] Upon retirement, Lynes travelled to the Darfur region of the Sudan, and made extensive observations of Bird life there, compiling a study which was published in 1930 in The Ibis as Review of the genus Cisticola. This work was well received and Lynes was awarded the Godman-Salvin Medal for his contributions to the study of African ornithology. In the same year he served as vice-president of the British Ornithiologists' Union and was made a correspondence member of the American Ornithologists' Union. He had also been made a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Zoological Society of London.[3]
In 1936 he made a further study of birds in Egypt, but two years later he contracted shingles in Sudan and was forced to return home with his health ruined. He never again travelled and entered a long convalescence from which he never fully recovered. At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Lynes was posted as senior naval officer in North Wales, a light administrative post given his ill health, and one which he was nevertheless unable to sustain, retiring again in 1941. He continued writing on birds of the Sudan right up until his death, in November 1942 aged 67 at a naval hospital.[3] He was buried under a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone in St. Seiriol Churchyard, Holyhead.[4] His health had never recovered from his illness in Africa. He never married and lived his entire life with his maiden sister, who cared for him when not at sea.[3]