Charles Hose


Charles Hose FRGS FZS DSc was a British colonial administrator, zoologist and ethnologist.

Life and career

Hose was the son of Rev. Thomas Charles Hose, grandson of Rev. Frederick Hose and nephew of the Right Rev. Bishop George Frederick Hose. He was born in Willian, Hertfordshire, England, and was educated at Felsted in Essex. Admitted to Clare College, Cambridge in 1882, he almost immediately migrated to Jesus College, and later left Cambridge without taking a degree. He was offered an administrative cadetship in Sarawak, where his uncle George Hose was the Anglican bishop, by the second Rajah, Charles [Anthony Johnson Brooke|Sir Charles Brooke], which he took up in 1884. His large collection of ethnographic objects from Borneo was purchased by the British Museum in 1905.
Hose retired in 1907 and moved back to England. He visited Sarawak again in 1909 and 1920. During World War I, he served as superintendent of His Majesty's Explosives Factory in King's Lynn, Norfolk from 1916 to 1919.
Hose was a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a fellow of the Zoological Society of London. He was conferred an honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University of Cambridge in 1900 and made an honorary fellow of Jesus College in 1926.
Hose died on 14 November 1929 after an operation at a nursing home in Croydon, South London. He was interred at Bandon Hill Cemetery.

Animal species named after Hose

Several species named to commemorate his work as zoologist:
Amphibians
Birds
Fish
Mammals
Insects
  • The stick insect: Hermagoras hosei Kirby, 1896 - endemic to Borneo.
  • The cockroach: Dorylaea hosei.

    Places named after Hose

Place