WIDENGREN, Geo. Stockholm 24.4.1907 — Stockholm 28.1.1996. Swedish Scholar of Comparative Religion and of Iranian and Semitic Philology. Professor in Uppsala. Son of Georg Hugo Wilhelm Jakobsson (1875–1927), a soldier, and Anna Matilda Leontina née Widengren (1883–1969), grew up in Stockholm. After parents’ divorce in 1917 took his mother’s surname.…
WHITNEY, William Dwight. Nothampton, Mass. 9.2.1827 (hardly 1828) — New Haven, Conn. 7/8.6.1894. U.S. Indologist. Professor in New Haven. Born in an old Yankee family as the son of a businessman and banker, Josiah Dwight Whitney (1786–1869), and Sarah Williston (1800–1833). Educated in 1842-45 at Williams College (B.A. 1845). In…
WHITLEY, Jabez Cornelius. London (or Shoreditch, Middlesex) 20.1.1837 — Darjeeling 13/18.10.1904. Right Rev. British Missionary in India. Son of Rev. Edward Whitley and Ann Hunt, educated at the Mercer’s School, Holborn, from 1855 studies at Queen’s College, Cambridge (B.A. 1859), ordained deacon 1860, priest 1861. “Went to India in 1862…
WHITEHEAD, Richard Bertram. Liverpool 6.11.1879 — Cambridge 4.3. 1967. British Civil Servant and Numismatist. Son of Rev. Robert Whitehead and Isabella Grimshaw. Educated at Liverpool College, studies at Exeter College, Oxford. In 1902 he joined I.C.S. and in 1903 arrived in the Punjab. From 1904 Assistant Commissioner, first in Ambala,…
WHITEHEAD, George. 1862 — Halton West, North Yorkshire 3.4.1935. Rev. British Anglican Missionary. From Yorkshire, of an old yeoman family. B.A. 1884 University of London, then curacy at Barnsley. Ordained deacon 1886 and priest 1887 in Mandalay. From 1886 worked in various positions in Upper Burma, in 1895-97 officiating Principal…
WHEELER, Mortimer (Robert Eric Mortimer; “Ric”). Glasgow 10.9.1890 — Surrey 22.7.1976. Sir. British archæologist. Son of English journalist Robert Wheeler and Emily Baynes. Grew up in Edinburgh and near Bradford in Yorkshire (1899-1905 Bradford Grammar Shool). Studies from 1907 at London University College (graduated B.A. and 1912 M.A.), in 1914…
WHEELER, James Talboys. Oxford 22.12.1824 — Ramsgate, Kent 13.1.1897. British Civil Servant and Historian in India. Son of James Luft Wheeler, a bookseller, and Anna Ophelia Talboys, privately educated. “Began as a publisher and book-seller. [During Crimean War] War Office extra clerk. Went to Madras to edit the Madras Spectator,…
WHEELER, Benjamin Ide. Randolph, Mass. 15.7.1854 — Vienna, Austria 3.5.1927. U.S. Classical and IE Scholar. The only son of Rev. Benjamin Wheeler (1807–1876), a Baptist priest, and Mary Eliza Ide (1822–1884). Educated at Franklin Academy, NH. Studies at Brown University 1871-75 (A.B. 1875, A.M. 1878), instructor at the same 1879-81.…
WHATMOUGH, Joshua. Rochdale, Lancashire 30.6.1897 — Winchester, MA 25.4.1964. British IE Linguist in the U.S.A. (citizen 1942). Professor in Cambridge, Mass. Son of Walter Whatmough, an iron-molder and woolweaver, and Elizabeth Hollows. Studied at Manchester (B.A. 1916, and, after war service, M.A. 1921) and Cambridge (Emmanuel College, B.A. 1921, M.A.…
WEYRAUCH, August Heinrich von. Riga 30.4.1788 — Dresden 8.3.1865. German (of Livonia) Poet (nom-de-plume Heinrich von der Myrrhen) and Composer. Born in a Livonian German family as the son of a post master, Friedrich Wilhelm von Weyrauch and Sophie Albertina Österlein. Educated in Riga and St.Petersburg. Studied law at Dorpat…