His fields of influence include language and education, conservation, exploration and botany in Malaysia, Borneo, Sumatra, Indonesia, and England, and his achievements have inspired Chinese scholars.
He entered Trinity College Cambridge in 1863 and graduated in 1866 as 31st Wrangler, taking a first-class honours degree in the mathematical Tripos[3].
[2] Following his graduation from Cambridge University, Hullett secured a teaching post as assistant master at the Puritan Felsted School in Essex, England.
Hullett left Felsted Grammar School in 1871 to take up a new senior post as principal of Raffles Institution in Singapore.
[citation needed] In 1906, Hullet retired as principal of the Raffles Institution and became inspector of schools in the Straits settlement and director of public instruction in Singapore.
Hullett was a founding member of the Straits Philosophical Society which was 1893 to engage in critical discussions on philosophy, theology, history, literature, science, and art.
Tan purchased the Daily Advertiser as a vehicle for communicating to the public their ideas about the need for reform within the Chinese community.
Another of Hullett's pupils was the respected Lim Boon Keng, OBE a Chinese doctor who promoted social and educational reforms in Singapore and China.
[citation needed] Another important plant brought back to China from Mount Ophir by Hullett was a variant of Impatiens (Busy Lizzie).
In 1956 in a seeming case of ‘plant envy’ it appears that Hullett was blamed for the inadvertent release to other areas of Southeast Asia Linaria alpina.
It is glued on the sheet and Mr VAN DER WERFF did not succeed in finding on a tiny fragment, aerial diatoms which might give a clue.
Personally I am convinced that this specimen has been erroneously localized, the error in all probability having arisen by the use of old, rough drying paper which had been employed formerly in Europe and was brought along to Malaya and to which this tiny specimen adhered and escaped attention until it was loosened with the Mt Ophir collection of HULLETT" One of the most significant cases of lost plants is that of the wild Malaysian citrus tree believed to be 12 million years old (now endangered).
Yours sincerely, W. Egerton 28/12/02 The Residency, Seremban Prior to human cultivation the genus citrus originated in South East Asia and consisted of just a few specimens.
[8] Macaranga, which occurs predominantly in peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, and Sumatra, is the world's largest genus of pioneer trees.
Without Hullett's discovery of one of the popular Euphorbia varieties of plants we may not have the distribution in Southeast Asia which we enjoy today, specifically continuation of M. hullettii is most important for the colony of tiny ants which require this to survive.
[12] Hullett's legacy has stretched beyond Southeast Asia, but his major contributions were to Hong Kong, Sumatra, Malaysia, Borneo, Indonesia and Singapore.