George Edward MacKenzie Skues

George Edward MacKenzie Skues, usually known as G. E. M. Skues , was a British lawyer, author and fly fisherman most noted for the invention of modernday nymph fishing and the controversy it caused with the Chalk stream dry fly doctrine developed by Frederic M. Halford. His second book, The Way of a Trout with the Fly is considered a seminal work on nymph fishing. According to Dr Andrew Herd, the British fly fishing historian, Skues

Skues was born onAugust 1858 in St. Johns, Newfoundland and was the eldest child of William MacKenzie Skues, at the time surgeon to the Newfoundland Companies. His mothers maiden name was Margaret Ayre. At the age of 3, his parents returned to Britain en route to work in India. He was left with and raised by his paternal grandparents in Aberdeen, Scotland, Langford and Wrington in Somerset. In 1872 he won a scholarship to Winchester, and left the school in 1877. It was at Winchester that Skues was introduced to fly fishing when, in 1874, he bought some hooks in Hammonds to catch minnows. Hammonds, an angling shop in Winchester, introduced Skues to fly fishing and his first attempt was made using an elevenfoot rod, a silk and horsehair line, and a Wickhams Fancy.

Source: Wikipedia