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Eric S. Willbourn - The Surveyor - Part 1
Born in Bridlington, Yorkshire on the 21st October 1889, Eric gained a scholarship to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge to read Natural Sciences. Graduating in 1911, he was awarded a First Class Degree and the Natural Sciences Tripos Prize, he later taught for a couple of years at Dean Close School Cheltenham. He then applied for the position of Assistant Geologist in the Geological Department of the FMS where he commenced work in June 1914. The Geological Department under its first director, J. B. Scrivenor, had established its headquarters at Batu Gajah.
Eric joined the Malay States Volunteer Rifles, the territorial force, the precursor of the FMS Volunteer Force. The one major purpose of the force was to deal with any local disturbances and ensure that the colonial subjects did not take advantage of a European war by fomenting rebellion against His Imperial Majesty.
In June 1917, he returned home to serve in the regular Forces for the duration of the Great War, with his Geologist's post being held open for his return. He was commissioned into the Signals (Royal Corps of Signals - which works to provide battlefield communications and information systems essential to all operations) in 1918 and subsequently served in France. His demobilisation was greatly delayed until May 1919.
Knowing he would be going back to Malaya, he made sure he married his teenage sweetheart, Jessie Cooper which he did on the 25th of June 1919. The happy couple travelled back to Malaya via Canada on the liner S. S. Suwa Maru but Eric had to be hospitalised in Manila, being seriously ill with typhoid. Eventually, they arrived in Batu Gajah in March 1920 where he resumed work at the Geological Survey.
On 19th of May 1920, their first child was born, Anthony (always known as Tony) and a daughter, Elizabeth (always called Betty as a child), arrived two years later on 19th September 1922. Eric spent significant periods out on expeditions, often for weeks at a time and on occasion accompanied by Jessie, throughout the country's uncharted jungles and mountains. He represented the Geological Survey at the Pacific Science Congress in Japan in 1926, accompanied by Jessie; they attended a tea-ceremony (fifth photograph).
In 1931, J. B. Scrivenor retired and Eric was promoted to be the second Director of the Geological Survey. From 1935 onwards, he was able to expand the Geological Survey and by 1939 there were no fewer than nine expatriate geologists and chemists employed. Amongst those he recruited was the remarkable James Richardson.