Folk-Lore/Volume 26/Obituary/Arthur John Newman Tremearne
OBITUARY.
MAJOR A. J. N. TREMEARNE.
By the death in action at Loos on 25th September last of Major Arthur John Newman Tremearne the sciences of anthropology and folklore have lost an enthusiastic and diligent student. Major Tremearne was born at Melbourne, Victoria, in 1877, and studied in the universities of Melbourne, Cambridge, and London. He received the degrees of M.A., LL.M., M.Sc, and the Diploma of Anthropology (Cantab.), and was also a barrister of Gray's Inn. He saw active service in the South African War of 1899, and also in West Africa, where he held various civil appointments and gained that wide knowledge of the Hausa language that led to his obtaining the Hausa Scholarship at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he became University Lecturer in that language. In 1913 and 1914 he visited Tunis and Tripoli to investigate the condition of the Hausa communities in these countries. His published work in anthropology and folklore was considerable. He contributed several important papers to the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (vols, xli., xlii., xlv.), to Man (vols, x., xi., xii., xiv.), to the Journal of the Royal Society of Art (vols. lviii., lix.), Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation (N.S. No. xxxiii.), and to Folk-Lore (vols, xxi., xx.). He was also the author of several important works: The Niger and the West Sudan, or the West African Note Book (1910), Fables and Fairy Tales for Little Folk, or Uncle Remus in Hausa Land (1910), in which he was assisted by his wife; The Tailed Hunters of Nigeria (1912), Hausa Superstitions and Customs (1913), Some Austral-African Notes and Anecdotes (1913), Hausa Folk-Tales, assisted by a grant from the British Association (1914); The Ban of the Bori: Demons and Demon-Dancing in West and North Africa (1914). The extent and value of these contributions during a short period show the energy with which he worked, both in the field and at the desk, and they amply prove the great loss to science by his untimely death, when his powers were at their fullest, and much more valuable books and articles might have been expected had his life been spared. He was a gallant and skilful soldier. His geniality of character and his readiness to assist his fellow-workers endeared him to a large circle of friends.