Hugh Exton, medical practitioner, was the son of Joseph Exton and his wife Ellen Haigh. He qualified magna cum laude as Doctor of Medicine (MD) at the University of Giessen, Germany, in 1861. He came to the Cape that same year and worked in a homeopathic dispensary in Cape town before setting up practice in Grahamstown. A few years later he went on an adventurous journey to Matabeleland and Tati. In 1868 he undertook a second journey to Matabeleland and present Botswana, where he collected birds and other natural history specimens and gathered information for three articles published in the Cape Monthly Magazine. One of these dealt with "The Bojala, a Bechuanaland ceremony" (1870, pp. 281-289), another with "Notes in natural history" (1871, pp. 218-222) and the third with "The philosophy of birds' nests in relation to instinct" (1871, pp. 342-354). Six birds from "the country beyond the Transvaal" (Grahamstown Journal, 19 May 1869) he presented to the Albany Museum, Grahamstown, followed by another 16 from Kanye, Botswana. Specimens were also sent to the South African Museum in Cape Town. He visited the diamond fields near Kimberley as well, and contributed a letter on their geology to the same journal (1871, pp. 380-382). E.L. Layard* quoted Exton in notes he published on South African birds in The Ibis in 1869 and 1871, and in the latter year named and described Exton's Barbet (Pogoniulus chrysoconus extoni. Exton made notes on the birds he observed in a copy of Layard's Birds of South Africa, and these notes were published by Austin Roberts* in The Ostrich in 1935.

Meanwhile Exton had moved to Bloemfontein in 1870, where he remained for more than thirty years. He was licensed to practice in the Orange Free State in 1870, and later also in the Cape Colony (1880 or 1886) and the Transvaal (1888). Apart from practicing medicine in Bloemfontein he involved himself in public affairs. He was a founding member of the Bloemfontein Debating Society in March 1877 (soon renamed the Bloemfontein Literary and Scientific Society). That same year he took an active part in the founding of the National Museum of the Orange Free State, becoming its first honorary curator and donating a number of birds and a collection of birds' eggs from Bloemfontein to its collections. From September 1881 to August 1883 he served as mayor of the town, ending his term of office to go on a visit to England. He remained in London to 1885. In that year he became a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries, was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, and bought some specimens for the National Museum before returning to Bloemfontein. Once more he became honorary curator of the museum. It was perhaps during this visit that he presented a number of South African fossils to the British palaeontologist Sir Richard Owen*, including the remarkable mammal-like reptile, Tritylodon longaevus. In 1888 Exton succumbed to the prevailing gold fever and moved to Johannesburg, where he showed an interest in geological matters. The short-lived South African Geological Association was formed in Grahamstown that year, with members from all over southern Africa. Exton served on its first council, but the association ceased to function after about two years. When the Geological Society of South Africa was founded in 1895 he was elected its first president, a position he retained until 1902, after the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). His inaugural address and two subsequent presidential addresses were published in the societies Transactions (1896, Vol. 1, pp. 1-11; 1897, Vol. 3, pp. 4-8; 1898-1899, Vol. 4, pp. 6-10). He published some minor papers and notes on geological matters, including "Geological notes on the neighbourhood of Ladysmith, Natal" (Geological Magazine, 1901) and wrote an obituary of Dr. W.G. Atherstone* for the Transactions of the Geological Society of South Africa (1898, Vol. 4, pp. 61-65). The next year he again donated some natural history specimens to the Albany Museum, including a sample of aragonite from the recently discovered Sterkfontein Cave.

In 1894 Exton contributed a paper on aphasia, resulting from a depressed fracture of the skull, to the South African Medical Journal. He was a member of the Transvaal Medical Society and served as its president in 1895-1896. At the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War in October 1899 he left Johannesburg to serve as civil surgeon with the Natal Field Force. He was stationed in Ladysmith Hospital from its relief in 1900 to the declaration of peace in 1902. Just before his death, while living in Port Alfred, he joined the South African Association for the Advancement of Science. Exton had wide intellectual interests and a high sense of duty, and was amiable and courteous in manner. He was one of the corresponding members of the South African Philosophical Society during its early years. He was married to Jacomina Hendrina van der Poel, with whom he had three sons and a daughter.

List of sources:

Anhaeusser, C.R. (ed.) A century of geological endeavour in southern Africa, 1895-1995 (pp. 15, 114, 117). Johannesburg: Geological Society of South Africa, 1997.

Bloemfontein Debating Society. Inaugural address delivered by the Chairman, Mr Justice Buchanan.... Bloemfontein, 1877. (Africana Library, University of the Free State).

Cape of Good Hope. Catalogue of the natural history collections of the Albany Museum, Grahamstown (Appendix to Parliamentary Report G24-'83). Cape Town: W.A. Richards & Sons, 1883.

Cape of Good Hope. Report of the committee of the Albany Museum, 1899.

Cape of Good Hope. Report of the trustees of the South African Museum, 1870.

Coetzer, A.C.M. Geskiedenis van die Nasionale Museum, 1877-1911. Navorsinge van die Nasionale Museum Bloemfontein, 1989, Vol. 6, Deel 8, pp. 244-285.

Cohen, A.B. Unpublished notes on southern african stone tool collectors represented in the collections of the British Museum (Natural History). March 2001.

Dictionary of South African biography, Vol. 3, 1977.

FamilySearch: Hugh Exton. https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/KFSR-HGK/hugh-exton-1833-1903

Grahamstown Journal, 19 May 1969, p. 2, "Natural History Society".

Geological Society of South Africa. Transactions 1897, Vol. 2, lists of office bearers.

Hall, A.L. A bibliography of South African geology to the end of 1920. Pretoria: Geological Survey, Memoir No. 18, 1922.

Medical and Pharmacy Register for the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope. Cape Town: W.A. Richards, 1893.

Oberholzer, J.J. National Museum centenary. Southern African Museums Association Bulletin (SAMAB), 1977, Vol. 12, pp. 254-263.

Plug, C. & Levin, G. The South African Geological Association (1888-1890). Africana Notes and News, 1991, Vol. 29(7), pp. 251-261.

Roberts, A. Dr H. Exton and his unpublished notes on South African birds. The Ostrich, 1935 Vol. 6(1), pp. 1-33.

South African Association for the Advancement of Science. Report, 1903, list of members.

South African Medical Directory for 1897. Cape Town: Cape Times, 1897.

South African Medical Journal (second series), 1895, Vol. 3, pp. 86-87, 151: "Transvaal Medical Society". South African Philosophical Society. Transactions, 1879, Vol. 1, list of members.

Young, R.B. Anniversary address by the president. Proceedings of the Geological Society of South Africa, 1927, Vol. 30, pp. xx-xxviii.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2024-04-22 10:03:45