William Charles Scully, Cape civil servant, author and plant collector, was the son of John Joseph Scully and Elizabeth Mary Creagh. He was unable to attend
school in Ireland owing to ill-health and in 1867 immigrated to South Africa
with his parents. The family settled on a farm near King William's Town, where
Scully received his only formal schooling for a period of six months. In 1871,
aged 16, he went to Kimberley to prospect for diamonds and two years later
proceeded to the newly discovered goldfields in the vicinity of Lydenburg and
Pilgrim's Rest where he prospected for gold with little success. In 1874 he
joined a transport expedition to present Maputo to fetch gunpowder for the
government of the South African Republic (Transvaal), during which he
contracted malaria. Shortly afterwards he started working for a boating company
in East London.
Scully's long
career in the civil service of the Cape Colony started in June 1876 when he
obtained a post as clerk in the magistrate office at Tarkastad. He qualified
for the post by private study and in due course taught himself Dutch, German,
French, Italian, Portuguese, and a reading knowledge of Latin. During the next
few years he was transferred to Graaff-Reinet (October 1877), Aberdeen
(February 1880), and Stockenstrom (north of Fort Beaufort, August 1881). From
January to July 1881 he was on military duty as a lieutenant in Nesbitt's Light
Horse regiment. In July 1883 he became a clerk in the colonial secretary's
office in Cape Town. There he started studying botany, receiving instruction
from P. MacOwan*.
In June 1884, at
his own request, Scully was transferred to Stockenstrom as magistrate's clerk, but
also acted as civil commissioner and resident magistrate. Subsequently he served
in a similar capacity in Fort Beaufort (May 1889). In January 1890 he was
appointed civil commissioner and magistrate of Namaqualand and in April 1892
special magistrate for the northern border regions. In January the next year he
returned to the Eastern Cape and was stationed at Peddie, Mount Frere (June
1894), Nqamakwe (Transkei, September 1895), Bathurst (November 1899),
Bredasdorp (April 1902), Caledon (July 1906) and Port Elizabeth (November
1908). He retired as chief magistrate of Port Elizabeth in 1915.
Scully collected
plants in the Eastern Cape, among others in the neighbourhood of Stockenstrom,
and in Namaqualand. Many of his specimens went to the Bolus Herbarium
(University of Cape Town), the Compton Herbarium (Cape Town), and the Royal
Botanical Gardens at Kew (England). Some he sent to his friend E.E. Galpin* and
these are now in the National Herbarium, Pretoria. A collection given to G.F.S.
Elliot* went to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Edinburgh. The plant species Hypoxis scullyi, Disa scullyi, Diascia scullyi and Gladiolus scullyi were named after him. By 1903 he had been elected
an honorary Fellow of the University of Edinburgh for his contributions to
botany.
Scully's
scientific interests extended also to other aspects of natural history, for
example, in November 1886 he presented a lecture on mimicry in butterflies at a
meeting of the King William's Town Naturalists' Society. Years later, in 1908,
he served on the committee of the King William's Town Public Museum. In 1894 he
presented a clay figure of a woman from the Amahlubis tribe near Mount Frere to
the South African Museum, Cape Town. He was an early member of the South
African Association for the Advancement of Science (founded in 1902) and served
on its committee for Section B (which included botany) during its first year.
His wife was an associate member.
Scully is best
known as an author and poet. During his stay in Namaqualand he started writing
short stories and poems that were published in British magazines. His first
book of poems, The wreck of the
'Grosvenor' and other South African poems, was published anonymously in
1886. In addition to poetry and fiction he wrote many works based on his
experiences and, in the course of his work, several reports on native affairs
for the government. His contact with the nomadic white farmers of Bushmanland
inspired vivid accounts of their hardships in the form of two books, Between sun and sand (1898) and Lodges in the wilderness (1915). In Reminiscences of a South African pioneer
(1913) he described his life as a prospector and magistrate. After his
retirement he visited the Witwatersrand and wrote The ridge of white waters (1916), which included notes on his
travels in the Transvaal Lowveld and to Maputo and Durban. In general his
memoirs were an unbiased reflection of conditions at the time. Three of his
books, Lodges in the wilderness, Reminiscences
and Further reminiscences of a South
African pioneer, were quoted as references in C.J. Skead's Historical mammal incidence in the Cape Province
(1980-1987). One of his books was a biography of Dr J.M. Beck*, Sir J.H. Meiring Beck: A memoir (1921),
another was A history of South Africa,
from earliest days to union (London, 1915, with 45 maps). His literary
merit was recognised in 1938 when the University of Stellenbosch conferred an
honorary Doctor of Literature degree on him.
Scully married
Ellen Theodora Barnes in 1885 and after her death in 1887 married Honoria Emily Richards
in 1890. A son from the second marriage, Gerald Creagh Scully*, became a chemist.
