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ABSTRACT
From 1862 until 1874, John Holt lived on the island of Bioko (Fernando Pó), laying the groundwork for a company that would become one of the most influential trading houses in western Africa. During his time on the coast, Holt was almost continually ill with malaria and other tropical diseases, and his illnesses had a major impact on how he experienced and interpreted his life and work in Africa. This paper draws on Holt’s private papers, as well as merchant memoirs and the historiographies of medicine, hydrotherapy and masculinity to explore merchants’ views of illness and how they were deeply embedded in broader assumptions about manliness during a time of rapid imperial expansion.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Mr Clive Holt for giving me access to the John Holt family archive and Amy Milne-Smith and Eric Jennings for their helpful comments on an early draft of this article. I am also grateful to the audience at the Midwest Conference on British Studies, held in Detroit in September of 2015, and for the advice of Dr. Sergio Borgia, who specialises in infectious diseases at William Osler Health System in Brampton, Ontario.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Kingsley, Travels in West Africa, 691.
2 Ibid. J. E. Flint argues that Kingsley’s admiration for merchants ‘was fanatical and unbalanced’; she believed it was merchants, not missionaries or officials, who should lead colonisation efforts in Africa. Flint, ‘Mary Kingsley—A Reassessment’, 96, 103–04.
3 A standard history is Hopkins, An Economic; on commodities and labour, see Lynn, Commerce and Economic Change; Satre, Chocolate on Trial; on companies, see Davies, The Trade Makers; for two opposing views of Unilever/United African company, see Pedler, The Lion and the Unicorn; Marchal, Lord Leverhulme’s Ghosts. Holt & Co. is the subject of Cherry Gertzel’s outstanding 1959 thesis, ‘John Holt’, but it remains unpublished and Gertzel did not have access to the family papers, held by Clive Holt. Promising work on the inner lives of merchants includes Davies, Trading in West Africa, which is a compilation of merchant memoirs with commentary; Cain, ‘Character and Imperialism’, which explores the worldview of British financiers in Egypt before 1914.
4 This is a rich body of work and includes Tosh, Manliness and Masculinities; Tosh, ‘Home and Away’; Roper and Tosh, Manful Assertions; Hall and Davidoff, Family Fortunes; Milne-Smith, London Clubland; Connell, Masculinities; Francis, ‘Domestication of the Male?’; Hall, ‘Muscular Christianity’; Mangan, ‘Muscular, Militaristic and Manly’; Mangan and Walvin, Manliness and Morality; Sussman, Victorian Masculinities; Vance, Sinews of the Spirit; Ward, Britishness since 1870.
5 Deane, Masculinity and the New Imperialism, 4–5. Deane highlights the distinction between the Victorian emphasis on self-reflection and character and emerging imperial ideas of pride in all-male communities who celebrated endurance and military prowess. But these imperial ideas were not universal, as Francis articulates in ‘Domestication of the Male?’ 637–652.
6 McCormack and Roberts, ‘Conclusion’, 194. In Contested Masculinities, Jayasena argues for a ‘crisis in masculinity’ as men confronted challenges to their gender identity through colonised men and ‘new women’.
7 On imperial heroes, see Sifaki, ‘Masculinity, Heroism and the Empire’; Mangan and McKenzie, ‘Duty unto Death’; for discussions of surgeons, see Lawrence and Brown, ‘Quintessentially Modern Heroes’; on soldiers, see Banerjee, Muscular Nationalism; Dawson, Soldier Heroes; on hunting, see MacKenzie, Empire of Nature.
8 Curtin notes that this revolution was aided by the army’s introduction of quinine and the concerted effort to find clean drinking water. Curtin, ‘End of the White Man’s Grave?’, 88, 87. For an excellent addition to Curtin, see Rankin, Healing the African Body, esp. 127–44.
9 Rosenberg, ‘Framing Disease’, xxiii.
10 Milne-Smith, ‘Shattered Minds’; Coleborn, Insanity, Identity and Empire; Coleborn, ‘White Men and Weak Masculinity’; Kapila, ‘Masculinity and Madness’, 128.
11 Holt, Diary of John Holt, 23 June 1862, 3. There are two published versions of Holt’s diary—one edited by Peter Davies and a more complete, limited edition issued by John Holt & Co. in 1948. Courtesy of Mr Clive Holt, I had access to, and used, the family copy of the latter version. This copy also contains notes by Holt’s grandson, Cecil Holt.
12 For a study on Holt’s Angolan rubber interests, see Vos, ‘Of Stocks and Barter.’
13 For more on early expeditions, see Carlson, African Fever.
14 Kingsley, West African Studies, 8.
15 Curtin, Death by Migration ; for British views on quinine, see Carlson, African Fever, 43–46, 50–51.
16 John Holt (JH) to Lizzie Longstaff (LL), on board the SS Benin, 20 April 1873, Private Collection of Clive Holt, Hertford, England (hereafter CHC).
17 Cotterell, ‘Reminiscences’, 42–43.
18 Speech given by Thomas Holt to the Board of John Holt & Co., Liverpool, 26 Oct.1917, 380 HOL 1/1/4, 4, Library and Archives, Record Office, Liverpool (hereafter LRO).
19 Allen, The Gold Coast, 148. Doctors recommended moving to higher altitudes to escape the coastal climate, and the move to ‘hill stations’ could serve as a pretext for segregation. For the India case, see Kennedy, The Magic Mountains; on West Africa, see Frenkel and Western, ‘Pretext or Prophylaxis’; Neill, Networks in Tropical Medicine, ch. 4.
20 Kingsley, Travels in West Africa, 97; Cotterell, ‘Reminiscences,’ 45.
21 Diary of John Holt, 20 Oct. 1862, 48.
22 JH to LL, Gaboon, 12 Feb. 1874, CHC. Holt retained some scepticism, however, and, when Ronald Ross announced the discovery of the anopheles mosquito as vector, Holt was one of his first and most enthusiastic supporters.
23 This illness was likely malaria but could possibly have been dengue fever. Diary of John Holt, 1 Sept. 1862, 35–37.
24 According to infectious disease specialist Sergio Borgia, this second illness may have been a relapse from malaria, or might have been bacterial or amoebic dysentery—but the absence of diarrhoea is atypical for viral or bacterial gastroenteritis. Dr Borgia notes ‘enteric fever’ (typhoid fever due to Salmonella typhi) is also a possibility although vomiting tends not to be severe. It is also possible that he suffered from more than one infection with indiscrete and overlapping clinical symptoms. For Holt’s evocative descriptions of his ongoing illnesses, see Diary of John Holt, 27 Oct 1862, 53; 27 Nov 1862, 62; 12 June 1863, 67; 9 July 1863, 68; 28 July 1863, 70; 6 Aug. 1863, 71.
25 Diary of John Holt, 26 March 1864, 89.
26 Deemin, ‘Autobiography’, 111, 123. Cockle’s Pills, made chiefly of aloe, were ‘anti-bilious pills’ designed to relieve liver ailments, headaches and heartburn. See Jones, What’s Who?, 45. Chlorodyne was a popular treatment for cholera, diarrhea, headaches and other ailments. Its infamous ingredients included laudanum, cannabis and chloroform. Silberman, ‘Many Aspects of Chlorodyne’, 27–31.
27 Whitford, Trading Life, 263.
28 Kingsley, West African Studies, 87.
29 Diary of John Holt, 1 Sept. 1862, 37. His attempts to treat himself are consistent with the medical wisdom of the day. A typical medical text, such as Harry Leach’s Ship Captain’s Medical Guide, recommended ‘that the bowels are well opened with a dose of black draught’, and two hours before an expected fit of chills the patient should receive ten grains of quinine and water with a few drops of elixir of vitriol. This should be repeated twice to stop the chills, a stronger dose of quinine administered if necessary, and then quinine treatments continued for a week. Leach and Spooner, Ship Captain’s Medical Guide, 50.
30 McNeill, Mosquito Empires, 80, 81–86.
31 Allen, The Gold Coast, 152. Access to clean water was a problem. Deemin recounted that ‘it was not often that the water I drank was filtered or boiled’. Deemin, ‘Autobiography’, 123.
32 JH to LL, Gaboon, 1 Feb. 1874, CHC.
33 JH to LL, Ben Rhydding, Leeds, 20 Oct. 1874, CHC.
34 Porter, ‘The Patient’s View’ 193.
35 Deemin, ‘Autobiography’, 134.
36 H. S. Jones, as quoted in McCormack and Roberts, ‘Conclusion’, 190.
37 Deane, Masculinity and the New Imperialism, 4.
38 Ibid; Sussman, Victorian Masculinities, 13.
39 Diary of John Holt, 1 Sept. 1862, 37.
40 Diary of John Holt, 8,Oct. 1862, 50–51.
41 Ibid.
42 Diary of John Holt, 22 Aug. 1870, 171.
43 JH to LL, Gaboon, 1 Feb. 1874, CHC.
44 The Kru were sea-farers from Liberia who frequently worked on European vessels. See Brooks, The Kru Mariner; Davis, Ethnohistorical Studies; Massing, Economic Anthropology of the Kru; Frost, Work and Community; Martin, ‘Krumen “Down the Coast”’. For more on Kru medical assistance, see Rankin, Healing the African Body, 41–42.
45 Cotterell, ‘Reminiscences’, 43.
46 Deemin, ‘Autobiography’, 111.
47 Whitford, Trading Life, 156.
48 Diary of John Holt, 1 Sept 1862, 37–39; 20 Oct. 1862, 48–49.
49 Whitford, Trading Life, 263.
50 Diary of John Holt, 22 Aug. 1870, 168–174. Holt also described nursing his doomed carpenter, George Thompson, in 1871 and arranging for his gravestone when he died. See Diary of John Holt, 8 May 1871, 179–81.
51 McNeill, Mosquito Empires, 67.
52 JH to LL, on board the Old Benin off Accra, 2 April 1873, CHC.
53 The extensive work on race, climate and medicine includes Livingstone, ‘Tropical Climate and Moral Hygiene’; Anderson, ‘Climates of Opinion’; Harrison, Climates and Constitutions; Jennings, Curing the Colonizers, 8–39.
54 Sinha, Colonial Masculinities, 1.
55 JH to LL, Gaboon, 1 Feb 1874, CHC.
56 JH to LL, Elobey Island, 6 April 1874, CHC.
57 Tosh, ‘Home and Away’, 571, 565.
58 JH to LL, on board the SS Benin, 20 April 1873, CHC.
59 McNeill, Mosquito Empires, 35–6. For medical views on women in the tropics, see Neill, Networks in Tropical Medicine, 66–67.
60 JH to LL, on board the Old Benin off Accra, 2 April 1873, CHC.
61 Diary of John Holt, 8 Oct. 1862, 51.
62 JH to LL, Liverpool, 8 Sept. 1874, CHC.
63 Price, ‘Hydropathy in England 1840–1870’; Bradley and Dupree, ‘Opportunity’; Durie, Water is Best; Durie, ‘The Business of Hydropathy’.
64 In Britain, the first major hydropathic hotels were founded in 1842: Gräfenberg House at Malvern and Tudor House/Holyrood House. Ben Rhydding was third and was ‘the most deeply-respected and certainly the longest-lived’. See Price, ‘Hydrotherapy in England’, 273–274.
65 Macleod, Ben Rhydding, 2, 10, 8.
66 Ibid., 3.
67 Extract from the Medical Times and Gazette for 23 Sept 1871, as reprinted in MacLeod, Ben Rhydding, 6, 7. On Darwin, see Browne, ‘Spas and Sensibilities’.
68 Holt wrote of the son of a barrister who was desperate to cure his alcohol addiction—to no avail. See JH to LL, Ben Rhydding, 6 Nov. 1874, CHC.
69 JH to LL, Ben Rhydding, 25 Oct. 1874, CHC.
70 Cotterell describes his dismay at arriving at the Pitlochry Hydro to discover that they lacked the ‘usual baths’. He decamped to Atholl. See ‘Reminiscences’, 84–85.
71 Letter from Dr. Young [?] to Ronald Ross, 5 May 1901, GB0809 Ross/79/03, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (hereafter LSHTM).
72 Jennings, Curing the Colonizers, 45.
73 Simon Baruch cites them in Principles and Practice of Hydrotherapy.
74 Hyde, Buxton, 26.
75 Kingsley, Travels in West Africa, 469–470.
76 Thomas Holt mentions the Mpongwe in his speech to the Board of John Holt & Co., 26 Oct. 1917, 380 HOL 1/1/4, 4, LRO.
77 JH to LL, Ben Rhydding, 22 Oct. 1874, CHC.
78 JH to LL, Ben Rhydding, 10 Nov. 1874, CHC.
79 Jennings, Curing the Colonizers, 42.
80 Durie, ‘A Fading Movement’, 67.
81 JH to LL, Ben Rhydding, 21 Oct. 1874. CHC
82 LL to JH, Beaumont Hill, Lincoln, 2 Oct. 1874, CHC.
83 JH to LL, Liverpool, 5 Oct. 1874, CHC.
84 JH to LL, Ben Rhydding, 24 Oct 1874; LL to JH, West Stockwith, 26 Oct. 1874, CHC.
85 JH to LL, Ben Rhydding, 18 Oct. 1874, CHC.
86 JH to LL, Ben Rhydding, 24 Oct. 1874, CHC.
87 JH to LL, Ben Rhydding, 23 Oct. 1874, CHC.
88 Ibid.
89 JH to LL, Ben Rhydding, 9 Nov. 1874, 10 Nov 1874, CHC.
90 Ibid.
91 Holt frequently wrote on hotel letterhead so it is possible to track his visits, which included to Swan Hydro (Harrogate), Buxton, Linden Hall (Bournemouth) and Smedley’s (Birkdale).
92 Tosh, Manliness and Masculinities, 5.
93 The term is from Vance, Sinews of the Spirit, 26.
94 JH to E. D. Morel, Liverpool, 4 Aug. 1904, B/JH(A) 1/1/12, Maritime Archives and Library, Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool (hereafter MAL).
95 JH to E. D. Morel, Liverpool, 7 Jan. 1907, B/JH(A) 1/1/15, MAL.
96 Diary of John Holt, 20 Oct. 1862, 51.
97 McCormack and Roberts, ‘Conclusion’, 190; Cain, as quoted in McCormack and Roberts, ‘Conclusion’, 190.
98 It is likely that Holt is referring to Deemin, who was his employee. See JH to RR, 19 Dec. 1901, GB 0809 Ross/79/76, LSHTM.
99 JH to LL, Ben Rhydding, 23 Oct. 1874, CHC.
100 Taken from an unpublished diary entry taped into Clive Holt’s copy of the Diary of John Holt. An inserted editor note reads ‘Entry of April 28th re. Frank Wilson omitted out of kindness to any relatives’.
101 Kennedy, ‘Perils of the Midday Sun’, 119.
102 For a brief description of the ‘Gentlemanly Qualifications’ needed for merchants to enter the upper echelons of British society, see Boyce, ‘Language and Culture’, 4–5.