Honey, P.J. 1922–2005

(Patrick James Honey)

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born December 16, 1922, in Navan, County Meath, Ireland; died August 17, 2005. Educator and author. Honey was a world-renowned authority on Vietnam who taught for many years at the University of London. His first exposure to the Southeast Asian country came while he was serving with the Royal Navy during World War II. He served in Europe but also in the Far East, where he was a lieutenant under General Douglas Gracey stationed in Saigon. After returning home following the war, he graduated from University College London in 1949. As the cold war heated up, interest in Southeast Asia grew, and Honey was enlisted to take an intensive course in Vietnamese at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He then traveled to French Indochina (later renamed Vietnam) just as the conflict between the French colonial government and Ho Chi Minh's forces was becoming intense. Fearing capture by Vietnamese nationalists, he fled to Hanoi and was able to conduct his research there for a time. Returning to London, he became a lecturer in Vietnamese and helped establish Vietnamese studies as a bachelor's degree program. Honey was regarded as an authority on Vietnam and his advice was often sought by government officials. He published numerous books about Southeast Asia and Vietnam, including Politics in South and South East Asia (1963) and Genesis of a Tragedy: The Historical Background to the Vietnam War (1968), as well as translating Voyage to Tonking in the Year Athoi (1976). Becoming a reader in Vietnamese studies in 1965, Honey tried to remain involved in the country, though war prevented him from traveling there, and he was active in briefing officials during the "boat people" crisis following the 1975 fall of Saigon. He also worked with the British Broadcasting Corporation's Vietnamese Service for many years. Honey's last years at the University of London, from 1982 to 1985, were spent as head of the Department of South-East Asia.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Times (London, England), September 14, 2005, p. 54.