Sir Henry Alfred Alford Nicholls (27 September 1851 – 9 February 1926) was a physician, disease specialist, horticulturist, zoologist and legislator in, and publicist for Dominica for over 50 years. He published on a wide variety of topics and was awarded a knighthood for his services just before his death.
Nicholls was born on 27 September 1851 in Spitalfields and baptised at nearby Christ Church on 31 December. He was the eldest of five children of Elizabeth Ann Pitkin and Thomas William Nicholls, a surgical instrument manufacturer. The family lived at 258 Kingsland Road, where Thomas practised his trade; later he was in business there with his second son, Walter James.[1]
Nicholls attended the Whitechapel Foundation School. He entered St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College on 25 October 1869[2] from where, in 1870, he was awarded, in the examination of practical anatomy at St Bartholomew's Hospital, a certificate, examiner's prize, and the Proctorship.[3] The following year he delivered a lecture at school on "The digestive system", concluding a course on physiology. He graduated in medicine (MB and CM) at the University of Aberdeen in 1873, and gained his MD degree from St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1875. Almost immediately he emigrated to Dominica, to serve as Assistant Medical Officer to Dr John Imray who had been there since 1832.
Nicholls married Marion Crompton, the "shy and retiring third daughter"[4] of John Corney Crompton and Marianne Félicité Renault, on 6 September 1877. In the period 1878 to 1891 they had 10 children: 4 boys and 6 girls. The family had two homes. One was at St Aroment - a thirty-acre estate on the outskirts of Roseau, which Nicholls inherited from Dr Imray; the other was Kingsland House, a one-story wooden town house "with a broad veranda".[4]
Very soon after his arrival in Dominica, Nicholls and three companions went from Roseau to the interior of the island, in what is now known as Morne Trois Pitons National Park. There, with the help of their carriers (four men and some boys) they climbed up through heavily forested slopes and found Boiling Lake – "a large sheet of water in a constant state of ebullition." On a second trip, in April, the lake's altitude was found to be 2425 feet (739 metres), and its size about 150 by 80 yards, much smaller than estimated on the first trip.[5]
Nicholls wrote an article about a volcanic explosion which took place about a mile southwest of Boiling Lake on 4 January 1880.[6] In 1883 he wrote a letter giving a vivid description of the impact of a hurricane on 4 September, with 5 churches destroyed and over 400 families homeless in Roseau. In 1902 he gave a detailed account of events associated with the massive eruption of Mount Pelée in Martinique.[7]
On 28 February 1880, Nicholls escorted 14 year-old George Prince of Wales (the future King George V), and his elder brother Prince Albert Victor, first on ponies and then on foot to the "highest point in the island, Morne Diablotin, 5,314 feet high, nearly a thousand feet higher than the highest point in Great Britain, Ben Nevis."[8]
Nicholls was a frequent publicist for Dominica. At the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in South Kensington in 1886, he had a large showcase containing samples of many of Dominica's natural products, including essential oils, cocoa, sulphur, bark, coffee, annato [''sic''] and vanilla. It was "a trophy of multum in parvo" by exhibiting so compactly such a wide range of resources from the island.
One of Nicholls' first papers after arrival in Dominica was on "Extraction of Foreign Bodies from the Ear" in which he differed from a previous correspondent, Mr Walter Rivington (surgeon in charge of the aural department at the London Hospital), on the best approach to adopt, and taking Rivington to task for relying only on syringing.[9]
In 1877 Nicholls was appointed Medical Superintendent of the Dominica Yaws Hospital and, when Dr Imray retired, he succeeded him as Medical Officer of Public Institutions in 1880. In 1891 the Secretary of State for the Colonies appointed him as Special Commissioner to inquire into the prevalence of yaws in the West Indies.[10] His report was published as a Blue book in 1894,[11] and won warm praise from the then Secretary of State, Lord Knutsford: "your report is a monument of your ... ability as a scientific expert".[10] Following this recognition Nicholls was able to write an authoritative chapter on yaws and its treatment.
Nicholls was editor of The Leeward Islands Medical Journal.[12] He was also interested in tetanus, malaria and the hookworm disease ancylostomiasis.[13] His most senior appointment before retirement was Principal Medical Officer of Dominica, made in 1922.
Nicholls was particularly interested in expanding the cultivation of coffee in Dominica. In his paper on the subject[14] he began by noting that "Liberian coffee was introduced into the West Indies from the Royal Gardens at Kew in the year 1874, when a few plants were sent by Sir Joseph Hooker to the Botanic Gardens at Jamaica and Trinidad, and to the late Dr Imray of Dominica." He goes on to describe the preferred soils and the need for shelter trees to protect from hurricanes.
In the early 1880s - during Hooker's last few years as Director of Kew - Nicholls was the Kew correspondent for Dominica. For that reason Nicholls dedicated his Text-Book on Tropical Agriculture to Sir Joseph.[15] The demand for it was such that the book was reprinted seven times at intervals of about five years; it was also translated into several languages along with Swiss-Venezuelan geographer and botanist Henri François Pittier. Nicholls wrote many letters to Hooker, Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, Daniel Morris and others at Kew.[16] He also contributed plants and seeds to the collection there.[17]
Soon after his election as a Corresponding Member of the Zoological Society of London (CMZS), Nicholls donated two common boas and seven slender-fingered frogs to the zoo.[18]
Nicholls' passion for expanding the export of fruit was expressed in his booklet on The cultivation of the banana in Dominica.[19] He noted that now that Dominica had become the last port of call by the Quebec Steamship Company on its West Indies to New York line "there is no reason why the planters of the island should not participate in the profits from the banana trade", which currently was dominated by Jamaica. With his usual clarity and precision he went on to describe the conditions necessary for successful propagation of the fruit.
In 1887, James Anthony Froude travelled to the West Indies. During his visit to Dominica he was invited by Nicholls to visit his home, where he saw the very successful cultivation of lime trees:
In 1889 The Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society of British Guiana sought and received advice on the packing of fruit for export. Nicholls gave precise instructions on when and how to cut oranges and limes, wrap them in a special paper, and pack them in specific designs of crate or barrel. His instructions were later printed for distribution.[20]
Henry Nicholls learned of his knighthood by telegram from the Governor of Dominica: "It gives me much pleasure to inform you that His Majesty has been graciously pleased to approve of K.B. (Knight Bachelor) Nicholls. Please convey my hearty congratulations." The event was celebrated at a gathering of Sir Henry & Lady Nicholls and relatives at Government House, at which Edward Carlyon Eliot, Administrator of Dominica and Nicholls' grandson by marriage, said:
Sadly, Sir Henry died on 9 February 1926. Condolences were received from far and wide, including Sir Algernon Edward Aspinall, Secretary of the West India Committee, J Pierpont Morgan Jr. who was visiting Trinidad and J H Menzies in Canada, who wrote of Nicholls in an article entitled "The Uncrowned King of Dominica".[29]
Nicholls was a leading member of the Anglican Church. After an impressive funeral, with many public figures attending, he was, as a mark of honour, "buried next to the church in Roseau rather than in the general church graveyard some distance away at Newtown."[30] The white marble cross bears the inscription "Life's Work Well Done. Then Comes Rest".[10]
In 1927 he was sentenced by the magistrate, Herbert Wilberforce, in Marylebone to six months' hard labour, having pleaded guilty to charges of stealing a suit belonging to a fellow lodger, and obtaining money fraudulently from three police constables in London. Nicholls had already been imprisoned for 3 months in 1924 for stealing a suit from a room mate.
In the 1950s and 60s the electoral registers showed that William lived at 53 Lulworth House, Dorset Road, Vauxhall. He was entered alongside his wife Dorothy, and three of his four daughters, plus his son, William Alfred Alford Nicholls. The 1957 register shows all four:
Nicholls, Barbara D.
Nicholls, Dorothy A.
Nicholls, Joyce P.
Nicholls, Pamela R.
Nicholls, William Alford
Nicholls, William Alfred Alford
William Alford Nicholls died in the Westminster registration district in 1970. There is no record of a marriage.
As a final tribute to the Nicholls family, some of the characters in The Orchid House are clearly inspired by them at their home at L'Aromatique, with Old Master being Nicholls himself, and Rufus the errant Ralph.[4]