John Hemming (explorer)
Encyclopedia
Dr John Hemming, CMG
(born 5 January 1935) is a Canadian
explorer and author, expert on Incas and indigenous peoples of Amazonia.
because his Canadian father, Henry Harold Hemming OBE, MC
, had been through the trenches in the First World War, saw the Second coming, and wanted him to be born in North America
. So he sent John's mother, Alice Hemming OBE, a well-known journalist, on a cruise through the Panama Canal
that ended in British Columbia
. John and his sister Louisa were brought back to London when he was two months old. Though a proud Canadian he has not been there since 1967. He was educated in the United Kingdom
at Eton College
and read History
at Magdalen College, Oxford
.
In 1961, with fellow Oxford graduates Richard Mason and Kit Lambert
(who later managed The Who
), he was part of the Iriri River
Expedition into unexplored country in central Brazil
. The Brazilian mapping agency, IBGE, sent a 3-man survey team to help map these unknown forests and rivers and gave the Expedition permission to name features it found. Sadly, after four months, an unknown indigenous people found the group's trail, laid an ambush, and killed Richard Mason with arrows and clubs. Mason was the last Englishman ever to be killed by an uncontacted tribe. His body was carried out and buried in the British cemetery in Rio de Janeiro
. The tribe was contacted in 1973, and was called Panará
: Hemming visited them in 1998 and wrote about this in The Times
.
His first book, The Conquest of the Incas, was published in 1970; one reviewer believed that it was by a famous historian using a pseudonym
, so high was the level of scholarship. (Hemming at the time was only an M.A.; he later received a D.Litt doctorate from Oxford
as well as honorary doctorates from the University of Warwick
and the University of Stirling
.) This book went on to win the Robert Pitman Literary Prize and the Christopher Medal in New York. Hemming has since travelled to every part of Peru
, is chairman of the Anglo-Peruvian Society, and in 2007 was awarded Peru
's highest civil decoration, the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit. He has also written, with the American photographer Edward Ranney, an account of Inca architecture of Peru, Monuments of the Incas, to be reissued in a revised edition in 2009.
His experience on the Iriri River Expedition led to a heightened interest in Brazilian Indians. Between 1971-72 he visited 45 tribes throughout Brazil
- four of them (Surui
, Parakana, Asurini and Galera Nambikwara) at the time that Brazilian teams made the first-ever face-to-face contact. Over the following 26 years he completed a 3-volume history of the indigenous peoples of Amazonia: Red Gold (1978), which covers the period 1500-1760; Amazon Frontier (1985), covering the period 1760-1910; and Die If You Must (2004), which describes their plight during the 20th century. In recognition of this and his other work in Brazil
Hemming was awarded the Order of the Southern Cross
by the Brazilian government in 1998.
In 1975, John Hemming became Director and Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society
, a post he held until 1996. The Society changed in every way during those 21 years: its membership more than doubled; finances went from deficits to a healthy surplus; lectures expanded from about 20 per year to involve 450 speakers in a series of packed Monday-night events in London and at branches set up around the UK; expedition training was introduced with the successful Expedition Advisory Centre (run by Nigel Winser and Shane Winser); the Victorian premises beside Hyde Park
were fully restored and made more inviting with meals, bars, etc.; and academic geographers of the Institute of British Geographers merged back into the RGS
. Research flourished through a series of multidisciplinary projects, in Wahibah (Oman
), Mulu (Sarawak
), Karakoram (Pakistan
), Kimberley (Australia
), Kora (Kenya
), Mkomazi (Tanzania
) and Badia desert (Jordan
) - of which Hemming was co-chairman from 1992-2004. He personally led the Maracá Rainforest Project in Brazil
(1987–88) which, with 200 scientists and scientific technicians, became the largest research project in Amazonia organised by any European country - in partnership with Brazilian researchers from INPA (Amazon Research Institute) and SEMA environment agency. In 1990 Hemming was awarded the RGS
's Gold Medal in recognition of his work on the Maracá project.
John Hemming is currently Chairman of the Amazon Charitable Trust, a trustee of The John Ellerman Foundation, Earthwatch, Lepra
, The Hakluyt Society
, The Gilchrist Educational Trust
, The Rainforest Foundation, and The Global Diversity Foundation. He is also on the advisory board of charity Cool Earth
, one of the founders of Survival International
and for 10 years served on the board of the British Council
.
Aside from his involvement in exploration and Latin America, since 1963 he has worked for the Hemming Group Ltd, setting up and running one of the UK's foremost exhibition-organising companies, Brintex Ltd, before taking over as joint chairman of this family business which also organises trade exhibitions and conferences and publishes titles including Municipal Journal and Surveyor
.
In April 2008 his latest book, Tree of Rivers: The Story of the Amazon, was published by Thames and Hudson. Described by Alexander Cockburn
in The Sunday Times
as a 'manly epic', and by Hugh Thomson in The Daily Telegraph
as a book that 'will stand as the definitive single-volume work on the subject',.
John Hemming is the father of Beatrice and writer Henry Hemming.
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
(born 5 January 1935) is a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
explorer and author, expert on Incas and indigenous peoples of Amazonia.
Biography
Hemming was born in VancouverVancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
because his Canadian father, Henry Harold Hemming OBE, MC
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
, had been through the trenches in the First World War, saw the Second coming, and wanted him to be born in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. So he sent John's mother, Alice Hemming OBE, a well-known journalist, on a cruise through the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
that ended in British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
. John and his sister Louisa were brought back to London when he was two months old. Though a proud Canadian he has not been there since 1967. He was educated in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and read History
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
at Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
.
In 1961, with fellow Oxford graduates Richard Mason and Kit Lambert
Kit Lambert
Christopher "Kit" Sebastian Lambert was a record producer and the manager for The Who.-Early life:Kit Lambert was the son of noted composer, Constant Lambert...
(who later managed The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
), he was part of the Iriri River
Iriri River
The Iriri River is a tributary of the Xingu River in Brazil, in the state of Pará. It is long making it the 116th longest river in the world and the 15th longest in the Amazon Basin. The headwaters are the traditional home of the Panará people....
Expedition into unexplored country in central Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. The Brazilian mapping agency, IBGE, sent a 3-man survey team to help map these unknown forests and rivers and gave the Expedition permission to name features it found. Sadly, after four months, an unknown indigenous people found the group's trail, laid an ambush, and killed Richard Mason with arrows and clubs. Mason was the last Englishman ever to be killed by an uncontacted tribe. His body was carried out and buried in the British cemetery in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
. The tribe was contacted in 1973, and was called Panará
Panará
The Panará are an Indigenous people of the Pará and Mato Grosso states in the Brazilian Amazon. They were formerly called the Kreen-Akrore. Other names for the Panará include Kreen-Akarore, Krenhakarore, Krenhakore, Krenakore, Krenakarore or Krenacarore, and "Índios Gigantes" – all variants of the...
: Hemming visited them in 1998 and wrote about this in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
.
His first book, The Conquest of the Incas, was published in 1970; one reviewer believed that it was by a famous historian using a pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
, so high was the level of scholarship. (Hemming at the time was only an M.A.; he later received a D.Litt doctorate from Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
as well as honorary doctorates from the University of Warwick
University of Warwick
The University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...
and the University of Stirling
University of Stirling
The University of Stirling is a campus university founded by Royal charter in 1967, on the Airthrey Estate in Stirling, Scotland.-History and campus development:...
.) This book went on to win the Robert Pitman Literary Prize and the Christopher Medal in New York. Hemming has since travelled to every part of Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, is chairman of the Anglo-Peruvian Society, and in 2007 was awarded Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
's highest civil decoration, the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit. He has also written, with the American photographer Edward Ranney, an account of Inca architecture of Peru, Monuments of the Incas, to be reissued in a revised edition in 2009.
His experience on the Iriri River Expedition led to a heightened interest in Brazilian Indians. Between 1971-72 he visited 45 tribes throughout Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
- four of them (Surui
Suruí
The Suruí, also called the Suruí-Paíter, are an indigenous people who live in the Rondônia region of Brazil.First prolonged contact with the modern world came in the late 1960s, the Brazilian government laid the 2,000-mile Trans-Amazon Highway through Rondônia...
, Parakana, Asurini and Galera Nambikwara) at the time that Brazilian teams made the first-ever face-to-face contact. Over the following 26 years he completed a 3-volume history of the indigenous peoples of Amazonia: Red Gold (1978), which covers the period 1500-1760; Amazon Frontier (1985), covering the period 1760-1910; and Die If You Must (2004), which describes their plight during the 20th century. In recognition of this and his other work in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
Hemming was awarded the Order of the Southern Cross
Order of the Southern Cross
The National Order of the Southern Cross is a Brazilian order of chivalry founded by Emperor Pedro I on 1 December 1822. This order was intended to commemorate the independence of Brazil and the coronation of Pedro I...
by the Brazilian government in 1998.
In 1975, John Hemming became Director and Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...
, a post he held until 1996. The Society changed in every way during those 21 years: its membership more than doubled; finances went from deficits to a healthy surplus; lectures expanded from about 20 per year to involve 450 speakers in a series of packed Monday-night events in London and at branches set up around the UK; expedition training was introduced with the successful Expedition Advisory Centre (run by Nigel Winser and Shane Winser); the Victorian premises beside Hyde Park
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...
were fully restored and made more inviting with meals, bars, etc.; and academic geographers of the Institute of British Geographers merged back into the RGS
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...
. Research flourished through a series of multidisciplinary projects, in Wahibah (Oman
Oman
Oman , officially called the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the...
), Mulu (Sarawak
Sarawak
Sarawak is one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. Known as Bumi Kenyalang , Sarawak is situated on the north-west of the island. It is the largest state in Malaysia followed by Sabah, the second largest state located to the North- East.The administrative capital is Kuching, which...
), Karakoram (Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
), Kimberley (Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
), Kora (Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
), Mkomazi (Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
) and Badia desert (Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
) - of which Hemming was co-chairman from 1992-2004. He personally led the Maracá Rainforest Project in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
(1987–88) which, with 200 scientists and scientific technicians, became the largest research project in Amazonia organised by any European country - in partnership with Brazilian researchers from INPA (Amazon Research Institute) and SEMA environment agency. In 1990 Hemming was awarded the RGS
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...
's Gold Medal in recognition of his work on the Maracá project.
John Hemming is currently Chairman of the Amazon Charitable Trust, a trustee of The John Ellerman Foundation, Earthwatch, Lepra
LEPRA
LEPRA Health in Action is a health and medical development charity fighting diseases of poverty and working towards a world without leprosy...
, The Hakluyt Society
Hakluyt Society
Founded in 1846, the Hakluyt Society is a registered charity based in London, England, which seeks to advance knowledge and education by the publication of scholarly editions of primary records of voyages, travels and other geographical material...
, The Gilchrist Educational Trust
Gilchrist Educational Trust
The Gilchrist Educational Trust is a British charity supporting education, perhaps best known for its support of the Gilchrist Lecturers from 1867-1939....
, The Rainforest Foundation, and The Global Diversity Foundation. He is also on the advisory board of charity Cool Earth
Cool Earth
Cool Earth is a UK based international non-governmental organization that protects endangered rainforest to combat global warming, protect ecosystems and provide sustainable jobs for local people...
, one of the founders of Survival International
Survival International
Survival International is a human rights organisation formed in 1969 that campaigns for the rights of indigenous tribal peoples and uncontacted peoples, seeking to help them to determine their own future. Their campaigns generally focus on tribal peoples' fight to keep their ancestral lands,...
and for 10 years served on the board of the British Council
British Council
The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...
.
Aside from his involvement in exploration and Latin America, since 1963 he has worked for the Hemming Group Ltd, setting up and running one of the UK's foremost exhibition-organising companies, Brintex Ltd, before taking over as joint chairman of this family business which also organises trade exhibitions and conferences and publishes titles including Municipal Journal and Surveyor
Surveyor magazine
Surveyor is a British professional weekly magazine for those in the public and private sectors providing technical services in local government....
.
In April 2008 his latest book, Tree of Rivers: The Story of the Amazon, was published by Thames and Hudson. Described by Alexander Cockburn
Alexander Cockburn
Alexander Claud Cockburn is an American political journalist. Cockburn was brought up in Ireland but has lived and worked in the United States since 1972. Together with Jeffrey St. Clair, he edits the political newsletter CounterPunch...
in The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
as a 'manly epic', and by Hugh Thomson in The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
as a book that 'will stand as the definitive single-volume work on the subject',.
John Hemming is the father of Beatrice and writer Henry Hemming.