BRAY, Denys de Saumarez. Aberdeen 29.11.1875 — Winchester 19.11.1951. British Civil Servant in India, a Scholar of Baluchistan and its Languages (Brahui). Son of Rev. Thomas William Bray and Rachel Le Mesurier. Educated at the Realgymnasium in Stuttgart and Blundell’s School in Tiverton, then at the Balliol College, Oxford. In 1898 to I.C.S., served in the Pañjab, North-West Frontier, Baluchistan, and to the Government of India. Conducted the first complete census of Baluchistan in 1911. Deputy Foreign Secretary 1916, acting private secretary to the Viceroy 1918, Joint Foreign Secretary 1919, Foreign Secretary 1920-30, and a member of the Legislative Assembly 1922-29. Retired in 1930. Member of India Council 1930-37. C.I.E. 1917, C.S.I. 1922, K.C.I.E. 1925, K.C.S.I. 1930. In retirement lived in Winchester. Married with Celestina Leigh, one daughter.
Publications: The Brahui language, an old Dravidian language spoken in parts of Baluchistan and Sind. 1-2. 237+313 p. Calcutta 1909-34.
– Census of India 1911. Vol. 4. Baluchistan. 305 p. Calcutta 1913; Ethnographic Survey of Baluchistan. 1-2. Bombay 1913; The Life-history of a Brahui. 172 p. L. 1913; “Brāhūī Tales”, AO 17, 1939, 15-88 (texts and transl.).
– Also wrote on Shakespeare’s sonnets.
Sources: Who Was Who 1951–1960, Wikipedia.
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