Evelyn Arthur Smythies, CIE (19 March 1885 – 10 January 1975 ), was a distinguished forester and philatelist, born of British parents in India. Smythies was an expert on the ecology of Uttarakhand and Nepal. His careful studies of the earliest postage stamps of India, Jammu and Kashmir, Nepal, and Canada produced groundbreaking handbooks on which philatelists rely, even today.

Forestry

Born in Dehradun, India, on 19 March 1885 to forestry conservator Arthur Smythies (1847- 1934) and his wife Gertrude (formerly Gertrude Aston), Evelyn Arthur Smythies was educated at Cheltenham College, and received his degree in geology and a diploma in forestry from Oxford in 1908, then served in the Indian Forest Service from 1908 until 1940, based in Nainital. He was Chief Conservator of the Forest of Nepal from 1940 through 1947. Smythies' The Forest Wealth of India appeared in 1924. That same year, with C. G. Trevor, he authored Practical Forestry Management. Smythies and Jim Corbett proposed that an area around Ramnagar be made a "National Park" to protect the threatened tigers and other living things. These include the tiger, elephant, chital, sambar, nilgai, gharial, King Cobra, Indian muntjac, wild boar, hedgehog, common musk shrew, flying fox, Indian Pangolin, and nearly 600 species of birds. In 1936, the Hailey National Park came into being as India's first National Park. It was renamed the Ramganga National Park after India's Independence, but later it was renamed the Jim Corbett National Park in today's Uttarakhand.

Philately

The Half Anna Lithographed Stamps of India, a monograph by Smythies and Denys R. Martin appeared in 1927. Martin and Smythies also produced a pioneering study of the 1854 Four Annas, which won the 1932 Crawford Medal of the Royal Philatelic Society London. Other Smythies monographs appeared on the stamps of Nepal, written with L. E. Dawson and H. D. S. Haverbeck; and on Jammu and Kashmir, written with L. E. Dawson. In 1956 Smythies' interest shifted to Canadian stamps and postal history. He focused on British North America but also included Canadian cancels, duplex cancels, registered stamps, precancels, rollers, secret dates, Admirals and perforations. Forgers held a special interest for Smythies: these include Jean de Sperati, Angelo Panelli and Philip Spiro. Smythies was active in the philatelic community. He was a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London and the Canadian Philatelic Society of Great Britain. He was also a leading member of the Philatelic Society of India, the editor of their journal in 1947, and permanent Vice-President. Smythies was honoured as a Companion of the Indian Empire.

Family

Smythies was the elder brother of Bernard 'Bunny' Smythies (father of Yorick Smythies) and of Enid Smythies (Richard Dawkins' paternal grandmother). His wife, Olive Muriel née Cripps was the author of The Tiger Lady. Their elder son, Bertram E. Smythies, was known for his work in forestry and the study of birds in Burma, Borneo and Sarawak. Their younger son, John Raymond Smythies, was a distinguished neuropsychiatrist and neurophilosopher and author of 14 books in these subjects.

Publications