RUELL (de Ruël), Joannes. Leiden 1659/60 or 1663/64 — Colombo ?.5.1701. Dutch Priest in Ceylon, worked there as predikant in Colombo from 1692 until death, from 1698 also the first Rector of Sinhalese Seminary. He prepared a Sinhalese grammar, which was printed in Amsterdam in 1707 with help of “Sinhala…
ROST, Ernst Reinhold. Eisenberg, Sachsen-Altenburg 2.2.1822 — Canterbury 7.2.1896 (thus both Wikip., Weise & Wollaston; Stache-W. 2007 d. London 15.2.1896). German Indologist and South-East Asian Scholar in the U.K. Son of Christian Friedrich Rost, a Lutheran minister. After school in Altenburg studies of theology and Oriental languages at Jena (under Gildemeister). Ph.D.…
RASK, Rasmus Kristian (bapt. Rasmus Christian Rasch). Brændekilde near Odense 22.11.1787 — Copenhagen 14.11.1832. Danish Linguist and Traveller, also interested in Sanskrit and Old Iranian. Professor in Copenhagen. Son of Niels Hansen Rasch, a smallholder and tailor, and Birthe Rasmusdatter. Educated at home and in Odense, became early interested in…
TOLFREY, William. 1778 — Colombo 4.1.1817. British Colonial Officer in India and Civil Servant in Sri Lanka. Son of a colonial official (in India?), grew up in England. He came to the island in 1805, after having served in army in India in 1794–1805, participating in Mysore and Maratha wars.…
PERTOLD, Otakar. Jaroměř, Hradec Králové 21.3.1884 — Prague 3.5.1965. Czechoslovakian Indologist and Anthropologist. Professor in Prague. Born in Northern Bohemia as son of a chemist and owner of a sugar factory. Educated in Slany 1894-1902, then studies of classical philology, philosophy, Oriental languages (under Zubatý et al.) and astronomy at…
PARKER, Henry. 1849 — 19??. British Engineer and Civil Servant in Sri Lanka. Arrived in 1873 and in 1873-1904 worked as Irrigation Officer at Public Works Department, serving in different parts of the island. Interest in ancient reservoirs led him to archaeology. At the same time he achieved an important…
NEVILL, Hugh. Tottenham, Middlesex 19.6.1847 — Hyères, France 10.4.1897. British Civil Servant in Sri Lanka. Son of William N. and Mary Oridge (d. 1857). Came to Ceylon when 17 as private secretary to Chief Justice and served 27 years there, finally (1895-97) District Judge in Batticaloa. He left Ceylon because…
LEWIS, John Penry. Galway, Ireland 1854 (hardly 1851) — 1923. British Civil Servant in Sri Lanka. After school in Middlesex, studies at Queen’s University in Belfast (B.A. 1876, M.A. 1882). In 1877 joined Ceylon Civil Service, served in revenue and judicial departments. Government Agent of Northern Province, then of Central…
LE MESURIER, Cecil John Reginald. Cephalonia, Ionian Islands 7.2.1855? — 11.2.1932. British Colonial Civil Servant in Sri Lanka. Son of Cecil Brooke Le M. and his Greek wife Nicolina Zancarol (married 1854). In 1881 already in Ceylon. In 1896 dismissed from service on ground of having converted to Islam and…
HOCART, Arthur Maurice. Etterbeek near Brussels, Belgium 26.4.1883 — Cairo 9.3.1939. British scholar of Sri Lankan Archaeology and Ethnology. Son of James H., a Protestan missionary in Belgium, and Mary Mathieson Doulton (1850–1890), educated in Brussels and Guernsey, where the family originated. Graduated 1906 from Oxford (Exeter College) in classics,…