P. J. Honey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article is orphaned as few or no other articles link to it. Please help introduce links in articles on related topics. (October 2007) |
Patrick James Honey (December 16, 1922 - August 17, 2005) was a Vietnamese language scholar and historian. In 1945 he married Frances Watson and had one son and two daughters with her. Frances Watson died in 1986. From 1949 to 1965 he served as the first Lecturer in Annamese, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. From 1965 to 1985 he was a Reader in Vietnamese Studies of the University of London. From 1982 to 1985 he was head of Department of South-East Asia, after which he retired and moved to Devon. In 1991 he remarried, wedding Isabelle Boyer.1985:
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life and education
P.J. Honey was born on December 16, 1922, in Navan, County Meath, Ireland. He went to Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School in London before entering Birkbeck, University of London in 1940 to read Classics. In 1941 he enlisted in the Royal Navy, seeing active service on the Atlantic convoys, on the Russian convoys, in the Italian campaign, and finally the Far East. In 1945, when the Japanese surrendered in Saigon, the young lieutenant P.J Honey was sent with a small British force under General Douglas Gracey to maintain civil order in Saigon. This was Honey's first encounter with Vietnamese culture. In 1946, after being demobilized, he resumed his studies in London, and graduated in Classics from University College London in 1949.
[edit] Working with Vietnam
1949, Honey was recruited to take up Vietnamese language, which was considered a very difficult language and required a special aptitude from Classics Graduates to master.
Honey was persuaded by the 1947 Scarbrough Report, which drew attention both to the importance that increasing contacts between countries would assume after the Second World War, and to the serious lack of expertise across Oriental and African languages that the war had revealed.
P.J. Honey was trained under Professor Firth, Linguistic Department at SOAS.
He was appointed to a newly created post of "Lecturer in Annamese/ Vietnamese", where he received 16 months of preliminary training in linguistic and was sent to Vietnam for his first year of long study.
[edit] A Vietnamese specialist
1951 Honey arrived at Saigon, when the guerillas war led by the Vietminh against the French was increased.
With a lot of difficuties and at considerable risk, PJ Honey was able to make it to Hanoi to conduct his research and study the local language. This period was very valuable, since in 1954, the Geneva Agreements partitioned the country into two halves, and North Vietnam was not accessible for a long time.
During this time, PJ Honey also earned a BA in Chinese degree. He became the most valuable source of knowledge about Southeast Asia amd its cultures, languages, and politics. Many students from Australia and from the United States came to study with him. The British Foreign Office sought his advices about Vietnam.
1964 Cornell University invited him as a Visiting Professor.
1965 PJ Honey was promoted to Reader in Vietnamese Studies in the University of London.
After 1975, when Saigon fell, as the boat people flooded the outside world, his language skills were called upon to brief both official and refugees from Vietnam.
[edit] Published works
From the 1950s Professor Honey wrote many articles about Vietnamese language, history, and politics. His major research interest was the communist regime in North Vietnam. His books included:
- Introduction to Hoàng Văn Chí's From Colonialism to Communism. 1962
- Communism in North Vietnam: Its Role in the Sino-Soviet Dispute. Hardcover, Greenwood Press, 1963. ISBN 0837167914 (0-8371-6791-4)
- Genesis of a Tragedy: The Historical Background to the Vietnam War. Hardcover, Benn, 1968. ISBN 051027305X (0-510-27305-X)
- Voyage to Tonking in the Year At-Hoi : P. J. B. Truong-Vinh-Ky. Softcover, 1982. ISBN 0728600994 (0-7286-0099-4)
[edit] References
- OBITUARY: P. J. HONEY - Vietnamese scholar at Soas, The Independent (London), Oct 31, 2005, by Anna Allott
[edit] External links
- Works by or about P. J. Honey in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
