Frederick Nicholson Betts

Lt. Col. Frederick Nicholson Betts (1906, Launceston, Cornwall, UK - August 22nd, 1973, New Forest)

Studied at Winchester College 1920-24. Joined the Army in India as a Captain in the Punjab Regiment and in 1940, was posted to Eritrea. He later became Lt. Col. (Intelligence)in the V Force in Burma, a guerrilla and intelligence unit in north eastern India which made use of Assam Hill tribesmen. In 1946, the government of India made him the first political officer of the Subansiri area between the Assam plains and the McMahon Line (the boundary between India and Tibet). His first task was to march 60 miles into the interior to establish a supply drop zone and to set up a base which could provide supplies for the administrative setup there amid the tribes of the area such as the Nyishis and Apa Tanis. During this time he met Ursula Graham Bower, an anthropologist studying the Nagas, whom he subsequently married.

After retirement from the army he became a planter in South India and Ceylon. A year after India's independence, he moved to Kenya and served in the veterinary service in the Western Masai Reserve. He later moved from Kenya to the Island of Mull in Scotland where he spent time studying birds and animals, and in 1967 he moved again to the New Forest.

During his time in various remote places he studied the local ornithology. He was among the first to study and report from the remote Khru valley, the Coorg district in southern India as well as from parts of northeast India and Africa. His work in Kenya led to his major paper on The Birds of Masai. He also took an interest in orchid cultivation. He became a member of the Hampshire Field Club’s Ornithological section and of the Hampshire Naturalists’ Trust. He was Secretary of the New Forest beagles, served on the New Forest Consultative Panel, and was a Treasurer of the Burley Branch of the British legion.

Publications

• Betts,FN (1957) Halcyon pileata inland. JBNHS. 54(2), 462.
• Betts,FN (1956) Notes on birds of the Subansiri area, Assam. JBNHS. 53(3), 397-414.
• Betts,FN (1956) Colonization of islands by White-eyes (Zosterops spp.). JBNHS. 53(3), 472-473.
• Betts,FN (1954) Occurrence of the Blacknecked Crane (Grus nigricollis) in Indian limits. JBNHS. 52(2&3), 605-606.
• Betts,FN (1952) Birds nesting on telegraph wires. JBNHS. 51(1), 271-272.
• Betts,FN (1952) The breeding seasons of birds in the hills of South India. Ibis 94(4), 621-628.
• Betts,FN (1951) The birds of Coorg. Part II. JBNHS. 50(2), 224-263.
• Betts,FN (1951) The birds of Coorg. Part I. JBNHS. 50(1), 20-63.
• Betts,FN (1948) The flight of Storks on migration. Ibis 90(1), 150-151.
• Betts,FN (1947) Bird life in an Assam jungle. JBNHS. 46(4), 667-684.
• Betts, F.N. (1940) Birds of the Seychelles - 2 .The sea-birds more particularly those of Aride Island. Ibis (14) 4: 489-504.
• Betts,FN (1939) The breeding of the Indian Sooty Tern (Sterna fuscata infuscata) in the Laccadive * Islands. JBNHS. 40(4), 763-764.
• Betts,FN (1938) The birds of the Laccadive Islands. JBNHS. 40(3), 382-387.
• Betts,FN (1938) Some birds of a Coorg down. JBNHS. 40(1), 39-48.
• Betts,FN (1937) Bird life on a southern Indian tank. JBNHS. 39(3), 594-602.
• Betts,FN (1936) Wanted information about heronries in South India. JBNHS. 39(1), 183.
• Betts,FN (1935) Nidification of the Blackheaded Babbler Rhopocichla a. atriceps (Oates). JBNHS. 38(1), 189.
• Betts,FN (1935) Arrival dates of migrant birds in Coorg. JBNHS. 38(1), 197.
• Betts,FN (1934) Dates of arrival of migrant birds in Coorg in 1932. JBNHS. 37(1), 225.
• Betts,FN (1934) South Indian Woodpeckers. JBNHS. 37(1), 197-203.
• Betts,FN (1932) Notes on some Ceylon birds. JBNHS. 36(1), 257-259.
• Betts,FN (1931) The Bulbuls of the Nilgiris. JBNHS. 34(4), 1024-1028.
• Betts,FN (1930) Migration notes in 1929 from the Nilgiri District. JBNHS. 34(2), 569.
• Betts,FN (1929) Notes on the birds of Coorg. JBNHS. 33(3), 542-551.
• Betts,FN (1929) Bird movements in Coorg. JBNHS. 33(3), 718-719.
• Betts,FN (1929) Migration of the Pied Crested Cuckoo Clamator jacobinus. JBNHS. 33(3), 714.
• Betts,FN (1929) Distribution of the Brown Shrike Lanius cristatus cristatus. JBNHS. 33(3), 714.

References

• Anon, 1973, Obituary from Winchester College magazine ‘The Wykehamist’ No. 1222 (November 7th, 1973)
• Ursula Graham Bower. 1953. The Hidden Land. London, John Murray.

External links

• Burma V force