J.D. Romer, Hong Kong herpetologist, in 1940s London and then Hong Kong

Recently I found a few popular articles by John Romer (1920-82). Two were written in the months before he left U.K. for Hong Kong in August 1947.

The first was an article on monitors for the Aquarist magazine of June 1947 while the second was a letter on the longevity of the Natterjack Toad, also in the Aquarist, written in reply to an article by Eric Hardy. Romer reported that he had kept an adult for ten years and that it ‘died an unnatural’ death.

Then, from Hong Kong, he wrote an article on geckos for the Aquarist. That included his observations on what happens to the common house gecko of Hong Kong in winter together with notes on the importation of the Tokay into Hong Kong during the winter for human consumption.

Although, I lack a few copies of the Aquarist of the late 1940s and early 1950s, the final article, as far as I have information, appeared in 1951. This was an account of his visit to the snake temple in Penang in September 1950 while the ship taking him on long leave to U.K. was briefly in the port. 

You can read these articles on the Downloads page of my other blog site here.

I met John Romer a few times. The first time, early 1966 I think, we went to see him in his office in the Central Government Office, West Wing, through the entrance on Queen’s Road Central. The office, with its dark furniture, was immaculate with not a loose sheet of paper to be seen. On one side desk was a lighted tall cabinet. It was vivarium and in it was a superb White-lipped Pit Viper.

We had been warned by colleagues in the zoology department that John could seem diffident and unsure of himself with people from the university. I suspect that in his past he may have suffered from the condescending attitude then all too common of those who had university degrees to those who did not. I also saw him at the Hong Kong Natural History Society when I gave a talk in 1967. I think the last time I saw him was in the corridor of the old Zoology Department of HKU as he was heading out of the building.

John Romer died shortly after his retirement, before he could write a comprehensive book. His papers are in ZSL's Library. But what happened to all the preserved specimens he collected over the years, some of which are referred to in his published work?

Romer JD. 1947. Notes on the monitors. Aquarist 12 (3, June 1947), 70-71.
Romer JD. 1947. Longevity of Natterjack toads. Aquarist 12 (5, August 1947), 137.
Romer JD. 1948. Notes on the geckos. Aquarist 13 (3, June 1948), 86-87.

Romer JD. 1951. A temple of snakes. Aquarist 16 (7, October 1951), 150.

J.D. Romer, Hong Kong herpetologist, and the founding of the British Herpetological Society

J.D Romer handling Wagler's Pit Viper at the
Snake Temple in Penang, September 1950.
(Aquarist, October 1951)

John Romer (1920-1982) is rightly remembered as Hong Kong’s first proper herpetologist. From 1947 until the 1970s he recorded and described, with a characteristic punctiliousness, what he had seen or what had been brought to him. He described new species, had a new species of frog he discovered, Philautus romeri, named after him and produced checklists of the Hong Kong fauna. He did all this in his spare time while employed as the head of pest control for the Hong Kong Government.

His excellent biography, published with the help of his family in Contributions to the History of Herpetology in 2007, does not mention something about him that I only uncovered recently. Before moving on to that I should explain what an important job his was in Hong Kong.

His section dealt with rats, mice, cockroaches, ants, fleas, bed-bugs, midges and mosquitoes. In terms of public health, the most important ones were rats and mosquitoes. After the outbreak of plague in 1894, with 24,000 cases and a 90% mortality over 35 years, and the identification of rat fleas as the vector by the Indian Plague Commission in 1905-06, every effort was made in Hong Kong to kill urban rats and to examine the corpses bacteriologically. Rats and mice were also important causes of food wastage. Anti-malarial measures in urban areas involved altering the bed of streams to prevent stagnation and spraying standing water with oil to prevent the larvae breathing. In the 1960s when Romer’s section was handed responsibility, 80% of the population was kept free from exposure to malarial mosquitoes. Visible reminders of the pest control section (500 people were employed) were the rat bins attached to lamp posts for corpses to be gathered and a prohibition of standing water as in, say, a plant-pot holder, on private premises.

Romer had been involved in pest control in the army during the war. He served in the Ordnance Corps in Assam from 1942 until 1945 where he was responsible for measures to control rats and mosquitoes during the Burma Campaign. It would appear that he was not demobbed until 1947 since (see below) he appeared as Captain Romer. It is also likely that it was in the army when he advised the Hong Kong Government (military administration from the Japanese surrender until 1 May; civilian thereafter) on rodent control in 1946.

Besides his day job, John Romer also founded Hong Kong Natural History Society (as the Hong Kong Biological Circle) and it is in this connexion, of his involvement in founding societies, that I found further information—but this time in London in 1947.

The Aquarist magazine of January 1947 had this announcement:

Captain J.D. Re[sic]mer, 96 Mortlake Road, Kew, Surrey, is desirous to contact anyone residing in the British Isles who is interested in the study of life histories and habits of Reptilia and Amphibia.

Then in May 1947 the Aquarist announced ‘Proposed Reptile Society for Britain’:

It was clearly Romer who was drumming up support for the new society since he was the point of contact for prospective members. Then in July 1947 issue, it was announced that the new Society had been inaugurated on 11 July. But Romer’s name had gone and the inaugural secretary was Alfred Leutscher. What happened, of course, was that Romer must have been appointed to the pest control job in Hong Kong after his initial approaches to form a herpetological society. The August issue of the Aquarist stated that he would be leaving shortly for Hong Kong. Indeed he left Liverpool on 13 August on board the P&O’s Empress of Scotland with his wife Raymonde and nine-month old son.

Although John Romer had left for Hong Kong, there seems little doubt that he had a key rôle in the formation of the British Herpetological Society, which last year had its 70th anniversary. Indeed, in the late Mike Lambert's history of the Society he is shown as the first Secretary/Treasurer in 1947, with Alfred Leutscher being the second.

Contributions to the History of Herpetology, Volume 2, Edited by Kraig Adler. 2007. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. Romer, J.D. (1920-1982), p 212.

Lambert MRK. 1997. The British Herpetological Society. The first 50 years, 1947-1997. Herpetological Journal 7, 129-141.

UPDATED 20 July 2018