Irvine Hill – What’s in a name?

In 1904 Karl Hanitsch and Henry Ridley set out for Christmas Island together on a scientific expedition. Dr Hanitsch’s main interest was in entomology and Ridley was a botanist, geologist and naturalist.

Hanitsch drew a map of Christmas Island at that time and indicated camp location sites and interestingly clearly marked an area on Irvine Hill as Irvine Hall. Perhaps he made a mistake? But upon further investigation, Ridley who would write in 1906 about that time in an article titled  “An expedition to Christmas Island”, mentioned no less than 12 times “Irvine Hall“. 

It is mentioned here a couple of times in this interesting excerpt from his article:

Went up to Irvine Hall with my boy, Kassan, and two boatmen and a gardener to stop there the night and start early for the Murray Hill Track next morning. Accordingly started at 6.15 and walked fast to Ross’ camp and started from there along a track to the Northwest, at the commencement of which was an inscription in Chinese stating that it was the road to the big hill and place for water.

The track immediately disappeared and the woods proved very dense. Here I noticed upwards of a hundred Birgus [robber crabs] beneath an Arenga [palm] devouring the fruit. They had eaten almost every seed rejecting the pulpy outside cracking and eating all the seeds with their powerful jaws.

After pushing a long way and finding no track or rise, I thought it advisable to return and found the men behind had neglected to mark the track properly, so that we had some difficulty in finding the way back. After a short rest returned to Irvine Hall and after a cup of tea back to the Settlement. The whole time occupied in walking was ten hours and a half. It is clear that it is practically impossible to get to Murray Hill and back in the day, unless the track was specially opened beforehand.

Was Irvine Hall a specific spot on Irvine Hill as we know it today or was it naming the whole hill? Was the “Hall” in fact just a shack, tent or shed that had been erected and someone with a sense of humour having a joke with the place name? Yet by the 1904 expedition it appears nothing much was there. Ridley wrote:

… there was a track for some way known as the Murray Hill Track, starting a little beyond Irvine Hall. Accordingly tents and provisions were brought to Irvine Hall … 

Who was Irvine anyway?

Robert Irvine was a chemist and friend of Sir John Murray.  They collaborated together on joint chemistry works. Murray discovered the phosphate deposits on Christmas Island and Irvine supported him by investing in shares in the Christmas Island Phosphate Company. Irvine was also a Director of the company. Upon Irvine’s death in 1902 the trustees of his Will were instructed to accumulate his interest in the island until a fund of £30,000 was available for the foundation of a Chair of Bacteriology in Edinburgh. That story, from a 1949 newspaper account is told below:

OLD STORY, RECALLED

An interesting story was recalled at a meeting of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh managers yesterday, with the announcement that the sum of £33,000 had been received as further payment to account of one-third share of residue of the estate of Robert Irvine, Royston, Granton.

Robert Irvine died in 1902. His wife had previously died of cancer, and he was anxious to do something to help towards research into and alleviation of the disease. He had shares in the Christmas Island Phosphate Co., Ltd, and left instructions that, with the money saved from the dividends, his trustees were to institute a chair of bacteriology. In 1913 they had saved £30,000 from dividends and the Chair of Bacteriology in Edinburgh University was founded.

When the 1914-18 war came the shares lost their value. The trustees were advised to sell but it was found that there was no market. The three charities interested – the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, the Royal Edinburgh Hospital for Incurables, and the Dunlop Cancer Fund then asked the trustees to continue to hold them. When in the last war the island was taken over by the Japanese their value became negligible.

After the war, however, the company revived, both the Australian and New Zealand Governments having an urgent need of phosphates. The company was bought out last year by both Governments jointly at a cost of £2,750,000. The liquidators resolved to pay to account 200 per share on the 1600 shares left by Mr Irvine, to be divided between the three charities mentioned, and of the £99,000 received by the trustees £33.000 falls to each.

The Scotsman – Wednesday, 11th May 1949

And so this faded and almost forgotten story of Irvine Hall/Hill includes a lost story about a part of its original name, scientific men traipsing through jungle tracks in their quest to document the natural habitat of Christmas Island and importantly about Robert Irvine himself. His bequest to the field of medicine would help benefit humanity for decades to come.

This story contains a term that reflects a historical author’s choice of language as accepted in the period in which it was written, but which would not be considered appropriate today. It is provided in historical context.