Henry Tribe

This is a website dedicated to Henry Tribe (1927-2022) – husband, father, grandfather, scientist and, as he described himself, “Heritor of the Sunlit Uplands”.

Towards the end of Henry’s life I spent many hours helping him sort his vast Archive of family letters and documents, which was stored in an array of boxes, tins and suitcases. As he became less and less well, I began to read the letters in the Archive to him out loud – and got hooked!

As well as the personal side – somewhat steamy love letters between my grandparents, for example! – I found the historical aspect of the letters fascinating. Food shortages during WWII. A description of the Cambridge suburb of Arbury just after it had been built. Henry’s visit to East Germany in the 1950s. A letter from a colleague advising visitors to Russia to “bring nylon shirts”. Letters from a colleague in Nigeria during the Biafran War that had to be sent via the Red Cross.

I decided to record this information on a website in the hope it would be of interest not only to Henry’s family and those who knew him, but also to social historians, Cambridge residents, people interested in natural history, people interested in fungi, people interested in chess, people interested in words, people interested in … well … just curious people generally.

My greatest regret is that I did not create this website while Henry was alive. As I work through the Archive I have many questions that he is no longer around to answer.

This website is a work in progress. I will add information to it as I work through the Archive and as time permits. It was last updated on 04/05/2025 – the most recently added pages are Henry at the Grand Arcade, The Summons, A History of Mill Road Library, The Flying Bomb, “Bring Nylon Shirts” and Body Donation. If you would like me to notify you when I add new pages, please email me at andrea@sunlituplands.org.uk.

Andrea Hannath, daughter.

About Henry’s Domain Name

Henry has used the website domain name sunlituplands.org.uk since 2005. In Henry’s words:

The inspiration for the name is that the sunlit uplands were to be our reward if we defeated Hitler and Nazi Germany: the phrase comes from a speech by Winston Churchill made in 1941 (and which I think I heard on the radio at the time!). We did and have been living (in England and the USA), in the sunlit uplands since those dreadful days.

At the time of registration, sunlituplands.com and sunlituplands.co.uk had already been registered, so sunlituplands.org.uk was registered instead.

Between 2011 and Henry’s death sunlituplands.org.uk was dedicated to Henry’s ‘Millennium Bug’ – his model of an E.coli bacterium – and to his other molecular models. This information is included on this website on the following pages:

Life at 2 Million Magnification
E.coli Model (The Millennium Bug)
View the E.coli Model
60×40 cm Models