Hebbert, Henry Eric, 1893-1980 (Colonel)
Dates
- Existence: 1893 - 1980
Biography
Henry Eric Hebbert (1893-1980) was born in Dalhousie, a hill station in the Punjab, on 20 September 1893. He was educated at private schools in Reigate and Crowthorne in Berkshire before attending Wellington College. He proceeded to the Royal Military College, Woolwich, where he received a Sapper's Commission in August 1914. He went to France in early 1915 with the 12th Division of the Royal Engineers, and was later given the command of the 21st Division, ending the war as a Lieutenant Colonel. After the war Hebbert was second in command, and subsequently in charge of, a program for training Sapper Officers in Cambridge. He spent four years at Cambridge as a member of Gonville and Caius College, taking an Honours Degree in Engineering and an M.A. In 1924 he took up a position with the Sudan Public Works Department, first in Khartoum, and then at Port Sudan as Divisional Engineer in charge of the Red Sea Province, extending from the Egyptian border to the Eritrean frontier. He became Director of the Post and Telegraph Department, giving him responsibility for the whole of Sudan, and retired in 1945. Hebbert married Anne Mathews in 1933. During World War Two he served as a full Colonel with the Yugoslav partisans, retiring to his family home in Somerset in 1946. He died on 15 March 1980.
Likenesses:
RCMS 120/1/1 and 120/1/2.
Sources:
RCMS 120/9.
Found in 28 Collections and/or Records:
A Palace garden party, 1938 - 1941
110 x 70 mm. Showing many people sat at tables. Hebbert is sat at the table in the foreground, second in from right. Mrs Hebbert is second from the left, identified as 'LMH'.
At the Khartoum races, 1939 - 1941
135 x 85 mm. Showing eight Europeans stood by the racetrack. Hebbert is fifth from the left. Mrs Hebbert is third from the left, identified as 'LMH'.
Colonel and Mrs Hebbert, 1930 - 1937
95 x 125 mm. Showing Hebbert and Anne in their garden.
[Colonel and Mrs Hebbert], 1930 - 1937
85 x 110 mm. Showing the couple stood posing in Hebbert's garden.
[Colonel and Mrs Hebbert], 1930 - 1937
95 x 125 mm. Showing the couple stood in their garden.
[Colonel Hebbert], 1936
60 x 60 mm. Showing Hebbert in uniform stood on a lawn.
Erkowit, 1933, 1933
115 x 125 mm. Showing Hebbert stood on a pathway.
Fancy dress, 1930 - 1937
60 x 60 mm. Showing Hebbert dressed up in white robes and black wig. He has blackened his skin. Location not identified but probably in Sudan.
Farewell to the Hughes, 1939
125 x 75 mm. Showing a group seated for dinner. Hebbert is third from the right.
[Formal occassion], 1937 - 1939
175 x 115 mm. Groups seated at tables al fresco. Hebbert is on the far right.
Grand Hotel dance, 1939 - 1941
115 x 175 mm. Showing Hebbert and his wife Anne in fancy dress. Hebbert carries a sword and shield, Anne has her hair in plaits. Both have blackened their faces. Anne is identified beneath the print as 'LMH'.
[Group portrait], 1939 - 1941
270 x 190 mm. Showing a group of 75 men. Hebbert is in the second row from the front, seventh from the left.

H.E. Hebbert collection
Photographs, slides, journals, notes, panoramas, maps and plans relating to Hebbert's time in Africa, with some biographical material.
[Hebbert and friends], 1930 - 1937
125 x 95 mm. Showing a group sat in wicker chairs in Hebbert's garden. Colonel and Mrs Hebbert are stood, the others are seated and are identified under the print as: Elsie Barter, LMH and Miss Low.
H.E.H., 1930 - 1937
55 x 60 mm. Showing Hebbert stood in front of a large cactus.
Henry Eric Hebbert, 1936
120 x 90 mm. Showing Hebbert in uniform posing in a garden.
Kassala, at end of trip, 1943
90 x 120 mm. Showing Hebbert and his wife Anne stood beside the road.
King George Accession day 1938/9, 1938 - 1939
170 x 115 mm. Groups seated at tables al fresco. Hebbert is on the front left table, fourth from the left.
Luggage and selves at Kassala, 1943
120 x 90 mm. Showing Hebbert and his wife Anne stood beside their automobile, with their luggage piled up around them. The caption beneath the image reads 'The luggage which all fitted inside the car.'
Meru, 1939 - 1941
85 x 105 mm. Showing Hebbert fishing in a fast flowing stream.
Midday lunch, 2nd day, 1943
90 x 100 mm. A view of Hebbert sat beside a river.
On trek in the Red Sea Hills, Sudan, 1937 - 1939
220 x 130 mm. Showing camels and camel trainers resting under the shade of trees. Hebbert is stood far left in the background.
[Polo match], 1937 - 1938
135 x 85 mm. Showing a line of people sat behind a rope barrier. Presumably they are watching a polo match. There is a marquee pitched behind them. Hebbert and his wife Anne are fifth and sixth from the left. On the reverse of the print are two words, one of which may be 'Khartoum', with the date '1938'.
Reception at the Khartoum Palace - King George Accession Day 1939, 1939
135 x 85 mm. Showing people stood in groups in the Palace grounds. Hebbert is in the centre of the photograph.
Shambat, 1939 - 1941
85 x 115 mm. Showing people seated in groups in a garden. A few people have been identified in pencil beneath the print, but are mostly illegible. Hebbert is sat fourth from the left, his wife, identified as LMH, is second from the left.
Filtered By
- Subject: Africa (continent) X
Additional filters:
- Type
- Archival Object 27
- Collection 1
- Subject
- Sudan (nation) 25
- Khartoum (inhabited place) 7
- Khartoum (region) 7
- Ash-Shariqyah (region) 3
- Ethiopia (nation) 2
- Kassala (inhabited place) 2
- Kassala (province) 2
- Darfur (region) 1
- Eastern (province) 1
- Erkowit (inhabited place) 1
- Kenya (nation) 1
- Meru (inhabited place) 1
- Red Sea (province) 1 + ∧ less