PERCIVAL (Perceval), Robert. 1765 — 1826. British Colonial Officer. Joined Irish Infantry in the U.K., as Captain in 1795-97 participated in the conquest of Dutch Capeland. In 1797 to Ceylon, where he remained three years. His both books are said to be full of description of the cruelty and treachery…
PERCIVAL, Peter. Prestwich, Lancashire 24.7.1803 — Yercaud (Eṟkāṭu), Salem dt. 11.7.1882. Rev. British Missionary and Indologist (Tamil Scholar) in Sri Lanka and India. Son of Peter and Jane P. In 1826 Wesleyan Methodist Mission sent him to Jaffna, worked there until 1829 and after a few years in Bengal in…
PENKA, Karl. Müglitz, Moravia (now Mohelnice, Czech) 26.10.1847 — Vienna 10.2.1912. Austrian Anthropologist, Linguist and Aryan Enthusiast. Educated Vienna, studies of anthropology and comparative linguistics. In 1873-1906 schoolteacher (professor) at Maximiliansgymnasium in Vienna. He connected linguistics with ethnology equating language groups with supposed human races. Propagated a theory of Scandinavian…
PEARSON, John. Calcutta 1790 — 1831. British Missionary in India. Worked for London Missionary Society in Bengal Publications: A School Dictionary, English–Bengali. Calcutta 1829. Sources: A. K. Biswas, “Rammohun Roy, his intellectual compatriots and their scientific contributions”, Indian Journal of History of Science 46.3, 2011, 427-481 (briefly on p. 450).
PEARSE, George Godfrey. Berhampore, dt. Murshidabad (or Madras?) 4.1.1827 — Shanklin, Isle of Wight (or London?) 5.12.1905. British (Scottish) Colonial Officer in India, noted as a Numismatist. Son of Dr. George Pearse, a physician from Edinburgh, and Anne Sarah McCulloch. Served in South India from 1844, in 1848-55 in the…
PAWSEY, Charles Ridley. Surbiton, Surrey 14.7.1894 — Badingham, Woodbridge, Suffolk 21.7.1972. Sir. British Civil Servant in India. Son of Charles James Pawsey, a paymaster of Royal Navy, and Ellen Edith Offord. After Berkhamsted School studies at Wadham College, Oxford (B.A.). Served as officer in WW I and joined I.C.S. 1919. From…
PARDO DE TAVERA Y GORRICHO, Trinidad Hermengildo José Maria Juan Francisco. 13.4.1857 — 26.3.1925. Spanish-Philippinese Physician, Antiquarian and Linguist. Son of Felix P. de T. (d. 1864), a lawyer and high official, and Juliana Gorricho, a wealthy Philippinese Spanish family. Grew up in Intramuros, Manila. Studies at Colegio de San Juan de Letran (B.A.…
PAPI, Carmelo Dionisio Lazzaro. Pontito near Pescia, Tuscany 23.10.1763 — Lucca 25.12.1834.Italian Traveller. Son of Alberto Papi and Fiora Pierini. For a while studied in a seminary, then served briefly in Neapolitan army, worked as tutor and studied medicine at Lucca and Pisa. In the early 1790s went to India, arriving…
PALMER, Edward Henry. Cambridge 7.8.1840 — Sinai Peninsula 11.8.1882. British Oriental Scholar and Asian traveller. Son of William Henry P., a private schoolmaster, and his wife Mary, lost early his father and soon also his mother, grew up with an aunt. After school in Cambridge he was sent to London…
PALM, John David (Johann D. P.). Colberg, Pomerania (now Kołobrzeg in Poland) 1775 — Colombo 10.9.1842 (when 66). Rev. German Missionary in Sri Lanka. Began as a weaver, educated in Berlin. Ordained 1802, when 26. Arrived at Ceylon in 1805. Minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in Colombo and Jaffna. He…