Herbert Purey Cust

Sir Herbert Edward Purey-Cust, KBE, CB (26 February 1857 – 11 November 1938) was an officer in the Royal Navy and Hydrographer of the Navy from 1909 to 1914. Early life to 1891 Herbert Purey-Cust was born on 26 February 1857. He was the second son of Arthur Purey-Cust, Dean of York and Lady Emma Bligh, daughter of the 5th Earl of Darnley. He joined the Royal Navy in 1870, and was promoted to sub-lieutenant in 1876. He served in in China, HMS Squirrel in Devonport, and in the channel squadron. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1878. Purey-Cust began to specialise in surveying in 1881, working for two years on , commanded by Pelham Aldrich, in the Red Sea and East Africa. In 1884 he took a surveying course at Greenwich, for which he received a £100 prize for General Proficiency and then spent four years with surveying in China, firstly under F.C.P. Vereker, and then under William Usborne Moore. While travelling out to China, Rambler was engaged in military operations in Sudan. For his part, Purey-Cust was awarded the Egyptian Medal and the Khedive's Bronze Star. He then spent three years on , first under C.F. Oldham in the Pacific, and then under Arthur Mostyn Field in North Borneo and the Anambas Islands. While travelling from Plymouth to Sydney in 1889, he observed migrating swallows off the coast of Senegal, which settled on the ship for a while before resuming their journey. He wrote a short note on the encounter for Nature. Command at sea, 1892–1909