Dixon & Dixon

[Roger Horton]

There are many specimens collected by 'H. & H. D.' carefully handwitten, often in red, and with an explanatory label 'Herb:- H. N. Dixon. Comm:- L. B. Hall'. One 'H' I have assumed to be Hugh Neville Dixon (20/4/1861-9/5/1944) and the other Mrs H (Anne) Dixon (1799-1864). I have always imagined a couple happily botanising around Essex together, then taking their finds to nice Mr Hall who sorted them out! However Mrs H Dixon is described in her details as 'floreat: 1832-1850', a bit early for Hugh (1861-1944), and anyway Hugh's wife was Mary! Could the other 'H' be his sister Helen Walker Dixon?

Much detail of the Dixons in Mark Lawley's BIOGRAPHY [pdf] and at the Microscopy-UK site.

[oldnick]

H@H collector search tells us that Mrs H Dixon 1799-1864, floreat: 1832-1850, 'was not the wife of Hugh Neville Dixon, but of Rev. Henry Dixon'. However as you say this can't be the lady of H N Dixon's labels given her dates. His first H@H specimen when he was aged ten is labelled just the same!
We would have to somehow believe his wife Mary ('a native of Northampton') was a constant childhood companion, and the labels were written out years after their collection, such that she was honorarily called 'Mrs H'.
Sister Helen wouldn't be Mrs H Dixon either; he would need to have a brother or sister-in-law 'H'.
His mother was Susan and father Robert, so no Mrs H there unless a favourite aunt!
I think we should check whether any of thehandwritten labels give him as 'H N Dixon'.
If not, I suspect he is not the famous bryologist but a relative? Not an elder brother though. Harold lived 1859 - 1893 (and was an invalid on the Isle of Wight) so wrong dates. Not Rollo either.

[oldnick]

I've started looking at Dixon sheets, and find brother Harold (and his wife Mrs H?) may be a possibility after all. He died 1893, and (after re-editing some incorrectly-edited sheets), from the sheets I've so far looked at:
- Mrs H doesn't occur after 1893 (http://herbariaunited.org/specimen/364410/ is dated earlier but I can't open to correctlt re-edit);
- after 1893 the style of most labels changes to plain paper from the familiar printed label, collector is often not stated, but 'H N Dixon' seems to replace 'H Dixon', and the red ink isn't used.
To check the labels exhaustively will or would take a long time! A question would be whether 'H & H Dixon' (which could refer to sister Helen) is more usual than 'Mrs H'.

[Roger Horton]

I've been checking the Dixon files most of the day! I notice sheet 364410 is currently dated 12/8/1898 but I think it may be 1878. If that were the case then the latest H&HD would be in 1887 well before the death of Hugh's older brother Harold. Thus raising the prospect that the second H of H&HD is in fact "Harold Goodman Dixon (1859-1893)"! This would help explain why when Hugh started collecting at an early age the second H was on hand even in 1870.

[Roger Horton]

'Mrs H Dixon' seems to have entered the database from Kent & Allen. There is a clarification from DE Allen in Watsonia (2000) 23 15-21. A Selective Supplement to British and Irish Herbaria [pdf]. I think this is where 'fl. 1832-1850' came from. Once in the database, whenever 'H Dixon' is entered without selecting from the drop-down list (i.e. it says black not green) it get's converted to 'Mrs H Dixon', no matter how often you try to edit it back. I am not aware of any label where 'Mrs H Dixon' appears in writing. I am hoping that when the BSBI manage to remove the crumbs from the butter that are currently bedeviling the database that Mrs H will become 'Mrs Anne Dixon' thus clearing the way for the the real 'H Dixon' no. 2 to step forward.

[Roger Horton]

On the wiki for Hugh Neville Dixon I have added an image of the title page of his copy of "Flora of Cambridgeshire" by Charles Cardale Babington. It is signed 'HN Dixon' in the top right corner and on the facing page is a list of abbreviations for local Cambridge sites, all in his handwriting.

[Roger Horton]

The monogram used by Hugh Neville Dixon on his early sheets, 'H. & H. D.', often appears to be in a different hand from his normal right-sloping handwriting. In a caption to an illustration in his booklet 'Pen and Pencil' (1941), however, he shows he can use both styles, as he prints 'Northampton. June, 1885.' in his normal hand but adds his initials 'H. N. D.' in the more upright style of the monogram:

[Roger Horton]

His Obituary [pdf] in the Botanical Exchange Club Report 1943-1944 pages 643-644 says that Hugh Neville Dixon 'left his British collections to Kew and his foreign ones to the British Museum'. There is, however, an easily overlooked clarification in the BEC 1945 Report (page 17) which says his collections of flowering plants were initially left to Leslie Beeching Hall, who in turn left them to Norman Douglas Simpson, who then gave most of them to the British Museum. This may help explain why many of Dixon's specimens have an additional label 'Herb :- H. N. DIXON. Comm :- L. B. HALL.'