Ursula Graham Bower
Encyclopedia
Ursula Violet Graham Bower MBE (later known as U. V. G. Betts) (15 May 1914 – 12 November 1988), was one of the pioneer anthropologists
in the Naga Hills
between 1937–1946 and a guerrilla fighter against the Japanese in Burma from 1942-45.
in England
, the daughter of Commander John Graham Bower, RN
(1886–1940), Ursula Bower was educated at Roedean School
; the Great Depression
and the hostility of her parents to the education of women prevented her from attending the University of Oxford
. On her father's remarriage in 1932, Bower became the stepdaughter of children's writer Barbara Euphan Todd
, the creator of the fictional scarecrow
Worzel Gummidge
. In the same year she travelled to Canada
.
She first visited India
in 1937 with a school friend, on a trip where her mother had hoped she would meet a nice husband. Instead, she fell in love with the Naga Hills and their tribes. Bower returned alone to India in 1939 to "to potter about with a few cameras and do a bit of medical work, maybe write a book." She spent some years as an anthropologist
among the Nagas
of the Naga Hills
. She took more than a 1000 photographs documenting the lives of local tribes which were later used in a comparative study.
At the start of World War II
she joined the Women's Auxiliary Corps (India), known as WAC (I). By this time she had so won the friendship and confidence of the Naga chieftains that when the Japanese armies invaded Burma in 1942 and threatened to move on into India, the head of V Force
asked her to form her local Nagas into a band of scouts to comb the jungle for the Japanese. Bower mobilized the Nagas against the Japanese forces, placing herself at their head, initially leading 150 Nagas armed only with ancient muzzle-loading guns across some 800 square miles (2,072 km²) of mountainous jungle. 'Bower's Force', as her unit became known, eventually grew and became part of the 14th British Army under V Force. Bower's force of Nagas became so effective that the Japanese put a price on her head. She was the subject of an American comic book
entitled Jungle Queen. Her personal weapon of choice was the sten gun, two of which she wore out in action.
By her orders guards were posted on main and secondary trails, and a watch-and-warn system was established. Over these trails thousands of evacuees, deserters, escaped prisoners and bailed-out airmen fled from Burma to India. Bower also directed Naga ambushes of Japanese search parties. On 24 April 1945 she was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire for her actions in Burma, and in 1944 she received the Lawrence Memorial Medal, named for Lawrence of Arabia, for her anthropological work among the Nagas.
Bower never received any formal training in anthropology, but her photographs, film and two monographs on the Nagas and the Apatani
establish her as a leading anthropologist, alongside her friends J.P. Mills, Bill Archer and Christoph von Furer-Haimendorf
. In 1950 she received a postgraduate diploma in anthropology from the University of London
.
She met Lt. Col Frederick Nicholson Betts
when he was serving in V Force
in Burma during World War II
and married him in July 1945, returning with him to Britain in 1948. For a period she and her husband grew coffee in Kenya
. They had two daughters, Trina and Alison Betts, both of whom were educated at Roedean
, like their mother, before attending university. After her marriage she was known as U. V. G. Betts. Her papers are held by the Centre of South Asian Studies at the University of Cambridge
.
A documentary film entitled Captured by Women featuring some of Ursula Graham Bower's photograph and object collections in connection with her own film footage of her time in Nagaland, India, is being produced by The Oxford Academy of Documentary Film (OADF), with funding from the British Film Council (The National Digital Archive Fund - Screen South). This is a collaborative project between OADF and the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, and it is directed by Dr Alison Kahn. The documentary also includes the film footage and work of Beatrice Blackwood, another important anthropologist who collected photographs and objects from Papua New Guinea (among other places), and who also captured film footage of her time in the field in the 1930s.
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
in the Naga Hills
Naga hills
Naga hills, reaching a height of around 3825 metres, lie on the border of India and Burma . These hills are part of a complex mountain system, and the parts of the mountain ranges inside the Indian state of Nagaland and the Burmese region of Sagaing are called the Naga Hills.In British India, the...
between 1937–1946 and a guerrilla fighter against the Japanese in Burma from 1942-45.
Biography
Born in WiltshireWiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the daughter of Commander John Graham Bower, RN
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
(1886–1940), Ursula Bower was educated at Roedean School
Roedean School
-Roedeanians in fiction:* Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward * Dawn Drummond-Clayton * Emily James...
; the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
and the hostility of her parents to the education of women prevented her from attending the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
. On her father's remarriage in 1932, Bower became the stepdaughter of children's writer Barbara Euphan Todd
Barbara Euphan Todd
Barbara Euphan Todd was a British writer, most notable for her children's books about the scarecrow Worzel Gummidge....
, the creator of the fictional scarecrow
Scarecrow
A scarecrow is, essentially, a decoy, though traditionally, a human figure dressed in old clothes and placed in fields by farmers to discourage birds such as crows or sparrows from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.-History:In Kojiki, the oldest surviving book in Japan...
Worzel Gummidge
Worzel Gummidge
Worzel Gummidge is a British children's fictional character who originally appeared in a series of books by the novelist Barbara Euphan Todd. A walking, talking scarecrow, Gummidge has a set of interchangeable turnip, mangel worzel and swede heads, each of which suit a particular occasion or endow...
. In the same year she travelled to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
She first visited India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
in 1937 with a school friend, on a trip where her mother had hoped she would meet a nice husband. Instead, she fell in love with the Naga Hills and their tribes. Bower returned alone to India in 1939 to "to potter about with a few cameras and do a bit of medical work, maybe write a book." She spent some years as an anthropologist
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
among the Nagas
Naga people
The term Naga people refers to a conglomeration of several tribes inhabiting the North Eastern part of India and north-western Burma. The tribes have similar cultures and traditions, and form the majority ethnic group in the Indian state of Nagaland...
of the Naga Hills
Naga hills
Naga hills, reaching a height of around 3825 metres, lie on the border of India and Burma . These hills are part of a complex mountain system, and the parts of the mountain ranges inside the Indian state of Nagaland and the Burmese region of Sagaing are called the Naga Hills.In British India, the...
. She took more than a 1000 photographs documenting the lives of local tribes which were later used in a comparative study.
At the start of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
she joined the Women's Auxiliary Corps (India), known as WAC (I). By this time she had so won the friendship and confidence of the Naga chieftains that when the Japanese armies invaded Burma in 1942 and threatened to move on into India, the head of V Force
V Force
V Force was a reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering organisation established by the British during the Burma Campaign in World War II.-Establishment and organisation:...
asked her to form her local Nagas into a band of scouts to comb the jungle for the Japanese. Bower mobilized the Nagas against the Japanese forces, placing herself at their head, initially leading 150 Nagas armed only with ancient muzzle-loading guns across some 800 square miles (2,072 km²) of mountainous jungle. 'Bower's Force', as her unit became known, eventually grew and became part of the 14th British Army under V Force. Bower's force of Nagas became so effective that the Japanese put a price on her head. She was the subject of an American comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
entitled Jungle Queen. Her personal weapon of choice was the sten gun, two of which she wore out in action.
By her orders guards were posted on main and secondary trails, and a watch-and-warn system was established. Over these trails thousands of evacuees, deserters, escaped prisoners and bailed-out airmen fled from Burma to India. Bower also directed Naga ambushes of Japanese search parties. On 24 April 1945 she was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire for her actions in Burma, and in 1944 she received the Lawrence Memorial Medal, named for Lawrence of Arabia, for her anthropological work among the Nagas.
Bower never received any formal training in anthropology, but her photographs, film and two monographs on the Nagas and the Apatani
Apatani
The Apatani, or Tanii, are a tribal group of people living in the Ziro valley in the Lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh India. However more Apatanis live outside this valley, making the total population approximately 26,000 all over the state...
establish her as a leading anthropologist, alongside her friends J.P. Mills, Bill Archer and Christoph von Furer-Haimendorf
Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf
Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf or Christopher von Fürer-Haimendorf was an Austrian ethnologist. He spent about forty years of his life doing fieldwork in Northeast India and in the central region of what is now the state of Andhra Pradesh and in Nepal.-Biography:Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf was...
. In 1950 she received a postgraduate diploma in anthropology from the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
.
She met Lt. Col Frederick Nicholson Betts
Frederick Nicholson Betts
Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Nicholson Betts was a British Indian Army officer and an ornithologist.F. N. Betts was born in Launceston, Cornwall in UK. He studied at Winchester College 1920-24. He went to Ceylon and worked in the tea plantations there and later in the coffee plantations in Coorg...
when he was serving in V Force
V Force
V Force was a reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering organisation established by the British during the Burma Campaign in World War II.-Establishment and organisation:...
in Burma during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and married him in July 1945, returning with him to Britain in 1948. For a period she and her husband grew coffee in Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
. They had two daughters, Trina and Alison Betts, both of whom were educated at Roedean
Roedean School
-Roedeanians in fiction:* Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward * Dawn Drummond-Clayton * Emily James...
, like their mother, before attending university. After her marriage she was known as U. V. G. Betts. Her papers are held by the Centre of South Asian Studies at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
.
Works based on her life
Two BBC Radio 4 plays, The Naga Queen by John Horsley Denton and The Butterfly Hunt by Mathew Solon were based on the life of Ursula Betts and her husband F. N. Betts.A documentary film entitled Captured by Women featuring some of Ursula Graham Bower's photograph and object collections in connection with her own film footage of her time in Nagaland, India, is being produced by The Oxford Academy of Documentary Film (OADF), with funding from the British Film Council (The National Digital Archive Fund - Screen South). This is a collaborative project between OADF and the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, and it is directed by Dr Alison Kahn. The documentary also includes the film footage and work of Beatrice Blackwood, another important anthropologist who collected photographs and objects from Papua New Guinea (among other places), and who also captured film footage of her time in the field in the 1930s.
Other sources
- Ursula Graham Bower. 1950. Naga Path London, John Murray.
- Ursula Graham Bower. 1950. Drums Behind The Hill, New York, Morrow.
- Ursula Graham Bower. 1953. The Hidden Land London, John Murray.