SHIRT, George. Cawthorne, Yorkshire 1843 — Quetta 16.6.1886. Rev. British Missionary in India. Son of the elder George Shirt (1813–1896) and his wife Sarah (1811–1848). Educated at C. M. S. College in London, studies at Cambridge (B.A. 1864). Left for India in 1866 and worked for Church Missionary Society in Hyderabad, Sindh, and, after a furlough in 1873–75, in Karachi and elsewhere. In 1881 in Quetta learning Brahui. After another furlough, 1882–85, returned via Persia. Worked in Sukkur on Sindhī translation of the Bible. In 1886 again in Quetta working on Brahui, but soon took ill and died. Fellow of Bombay University. Married 1868 Christiana Stephenson (1844–1922), eight children (who changed their surname to Hirst).
Shirt’s linguistic work on Sindhī and Brahui was aimed at facilitating the Bible translation. He also knew Hindi, Persian and Arabic.
Publications: With Udharan Thavurdas & S. F. Mirza: A Sindhi–English Dictionary. 919 p. Kurrachee 1879.
Sources: J. Bambridge, JRAS N.S. 19, 1887, 687f.; Buckland, Dictionary; A.R. MacDuff, The Utmost Bound of the Everlasting Hills or Memories of Christ’s Frontier Force in North-Western India. L. 1902, 59-109 (much praise, little information); parents and wife in findagrave.com (but stating he was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire 1844).
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