William Richard Carles
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| William Richard Carles | |
|---|---|
 Carles 195, cannabis collected on the banks of the Peiho on 13 June 1885 and held by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (CC BY-SA 2.5)
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| Born | 1 June 1848 Warwick, England |
| Died | June 1929 Bradfield, Berkshire, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | British consular official in China and Korea |
| Institutions | British consular service in China |
| Known for | Life in Corea (1888); plant collections from Korea and China |
| Collector name on accessions | W. R. Carles |
William Richard Carles (1848–1929) was a British consular official in China and Korea. He went to China as a student interpreter in 1867 and was appointed provisional vice-consul for Korea in March 1884.[1][2] His book Life in Corea (1888) describes his journeys in Korea in 1883 and 1884, during which he saw hemp grown as a field crop in the north and hempen cloth on sale in its markets.[3]: 145, 184, 212 He collected plants in China and Korea. Viburnum carlesii was described in 1888 partly from a specimen he gathered in Korea.[4]: 350 The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh holds a sheet of Cannabis sativa from his herbarium, gathered on the banks of the Peiho in June 1885. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew holds hemp fibre and cloth from Korea that he gave in November 1885.[5][6]
His standard label name is W. R. Carles.[7]
Early life
Carles was born in Warwick on 1 June 1848, the second son of the Reverend Charles Edward Carles, vicar of Haselor. He was educated at Marlborough College. In 1867 he went to China as a student interpreter in the British consular service.[1]
Korea, 1883–1885
Carles first went to Korea in a private party. He left Shanghai on 8 November 1883 and on 16 November set out from Seoul into the country.[3]: 12, 47 His report on the journey, through two of the central provinces, was presented to Parliament in March 1884.[8]
On 17 March 1884 he was appointed provisional vice-consul for Korea, with William George Aston, the consul at Nagasaki, as provisional consul-general.[2] From 27 September to 8 November 1884 he made an overland journey from Seoul to the north and back. His route ran by Song-do (Kaesong), Wi-ju (Uiju) on the Yalu, Ham-heung (Hamhung) and Gensan (Wonsan).[3]: 212, 265, 277, 315–317 His report on it was presented to Parliament in April 1885.[9] A third report, dated 12 May 1885, described a journey from Seoul to the gold-washings of Phyöng-kang.[10]
He spent about eighteen months in Korea in all. He was in Seoul in the early part of 1885.[3]: vi His paper "Recent journeys in Korea" appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society in May 1886.[11] Life in Corea followed in 1888, when he was vice-consul at Shanghai.[3]
Later consular career
After Korea he was appointed vice-consul at Shanghai in July 1886 and consul at Chinkiang (Zhenjiang) in July 1889.[12][13] In September 1897 he became consul at Swatow (Shantou) and in May 1899 consul at Tientsin (Tianjin).[14][15] He was made consul-general at Tientsin in June 1900.[16] In January 1901 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George.[17]
Carles later lived in England. At the 1911 census he and his wife, Helen Maude, were living at Cheltenham with four of their children. He died at Bradfield in Berkshire in June 1929.[1]
Hemp in Life in Corea
On the northern journey of 1884 Carles saw hemp in the fields several times. In the wooded mountains behind Song-do, villages were far apart and "hemp was one of the commoner crops".[3]: 145 North of Wi-ju, where crops were few, Indian corn, tobacco and hemp grew in small patches, more commonly than south of the town.[3]: 212 Late in October, on a plateau where snow had already fallen, he found hemp still standing uncut and oats lying in the snow. Villagers told him that the snow had come earlier than usual.[3]: 257
Men of the Tai-dong guild at Phyong-yang (Pyongyang) named hempen cloth among the products of their province. It was on sale in the market at Pak-chhon and at Gensan.[3]: 168, 184, 277 At Ham-heung, a provincial capital, the local manufacture of note was said to be hempen cloth, which he thought "looked very fine". A list of the province's taxes there included one on cloth, which he took to be "probably hempen cloth".[3]: 268–269
In Seoul in 1883 he saw men in mourning robes of hemp, their faces hidden by small screens of hempen cloth held before the mouth.[3]: 38
Plant collecting
The Harvard index of botanists dates his collecting in China to 1867–1883 and in Korea to 1883–1885. It counts about 2,400 of his specimens at Edinburgh and 830 at Kew, with more at the Missouri Botanical Garden.[7] On the northern journey he shot down the cones of a fir to send to Kew, where they were identified as Abies microsperma.[3]: 249 William Botting Hemsley described Viburnum carlesii in 1888 from a specimen Carles collected at Chemulpo (Incheon) and another collected by Perry in western Korea, both at Kew.[4]: 350[18]
Cannabis
The Edinburgh sheet E01459314, Carles 195, is a leafy top of Cannabis sativa. Its handwritten label reads not cultivated, Banks of Peiho and is dated 13 June 1885. A printed slip reads Herbarium of W. R. Carles, Esq., C.M.G. Presented 1900.[5] The Peiho is the Hai River.
Kew's Economic Botany Collection holds "Fibre (& cloth) of hemp" from Korea, which Carles gave in November 1885 (Textile (Kew EBC 43417)).[6]
Accessions collected by Carles:
| Collected | Locality | Repository | Catalogue number | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carles 195 (1885) | Banks of the Peiho | Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh | E01459314 |
Works
- Report by Mr. Carles on a Journey in Two of the Central Provinces of Corea, in October 1883. Corea No. 1 (1884). London: Harrison and Sons, 1884.[8]
- Report of a Journey by Mr. Carles in the North of Corea. Corea No. 2 (1885). London: Harrison and Sons, 1885.[9]
- Report by Vice-Consul Carles of a Journey from Söul to the Phyöng Kang Gold-Washings. Corea No. 3 (1885). London: Harrison and Sons, 1885.[10]
- "Recent journeys in Korea". Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society 8 (5), 1886, pp. 289–312.[11]
- Life in Corea. London: Macmillan, 1888.[3]
- "The Yangtse Chiang". The Geographical Journal 12 (3), 1898, pp. 225–240.[19]
- "The Emperor Kang Hsi's edict on mountains and rivers of China". The Geographical Journal 59 (4), 1922.[20]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Brother Anthony. "William Richard Carles and Korea". anthony.sogang.ac.kr. Sogang University. Retrieved 15 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Foreign Office, March 17, 1884". The London Gazette. No. 25331. 25 March 1884. p. 1404.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 Carles, W. R. (1888). Life in Corea. London: Macmillan.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Forbes, Francis Blackwell; Hemsley, William Botting (June 1888). "An Enumeration of all the Plants known from China Proper, Formosa, Hainan, Corea, the Luchu Archipelago, and the Island of Hongkong, together with their Distribution and Synonymy. Part V". Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Botany. 23 (155): 349–400. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.1888.tb00535.x.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Digitised sheet E01459314, IIIF manifest". RBGE IIIF image service. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Retrieved 9 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Fibre (& cloth) of hemp, catalogue number 43417". Economic Botany Collection. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 13 October 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Carles, William Richard". Index of Botanists. Harvard University Herbaria. Botanist ID 8568. Retrieved 15 October 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Report by Mr. Carles on a Journey in Two of the Central Provinces of Corea, in October 1883 (PDF) (Report). Corea No. 1 (1884). London: Harrison and Sons. March 1884.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Report of a Journey by Mr. Carles in the North of Corea (PDF) (Report). Corea No. 2 (1885). London: Harrison and Sons. April 1885.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Report by Vice-Consul Carles of a Journey from Söul to the Phyöng Kang Gold-Washings, dated May 12, 1885 (PDF) (Report). Corea No. 3 (1885). London: Harrison and Sons. August 1885.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Carles, W. R. (May 1886). "Recent Journeys in Korea". Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography. 8 (5): 289–312. doi:10.2307/1801318.
- ↑ "Foreign Office, July 1, 1886". The London Gazette. No. 25607. 13 July 1886. p. 3396.
- ↑ "Foreign Office, July 1, 1889". The London Gazette. No. 25955. 19 July 1889. p. 3895.
- ↑ "Foreign Office, September 27, 1897". The London Gazette. No. 26907. 15 November 1897. p. 6077.
- ↑ "Foreign Office, May 13, 1899". The London Gazette. No. 27091. 20 June 1899. p. 3866.
- ↑ "Foreign Office, June 9, 1900". The London Gazette. No. 27220. 14 August 1900. p. 5032.
- ↑ "Order of St. Michael and St. George". The London Gazette. No. 27264. 8 January 1901. p. 158.
- ↑ "Viburnum carlesii Hemsl". International Plant Names Index. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Harvard University Herbaria; Australian National Herbarium. IPNI ID 149599-1. Retrieved 15 October 2026.
- ↑ Carles, W. R. (September 1898). "The Yangtse Chiang". The Geographical Journal. 12 (3): 225–240. doi:10.2307/1774310.
- ↑ Carles, W. R. (April 1922). "The Emperor Kang Hsi's Edict on Mountains and Rivers of China". The Geographical Journal. 59 (4). doi:10.2307/1781510.