WILLIAMS, Robert Hamilton Blair. Buckland, East Tilbury, Essex 21.8.1915 — 1975. British Indologist. At S.O.A.S. in London. Son of Hamilton Blair Lee W. Graduated B.A. 1937 from S.O.A.S. in Indo-Aryan (under Turner). Assistant Keeper in India Office Library (Sanskrit, Pāli and Prākrit books) in 1939-46 and again 1954-57 and, although…
STEINSCHNEIDER, Moritz. Prossnitz, Moravia (now Prostějov in Czech) 30.3.1816 — Berlin 24.1.1907. Moravian Jewish Rabbi and Semitic Scholar. Son of Jacob St., a Talmud scholar. After school Talmudic studies in Prague (1833-36) and Vienna, now also other Semitic languages. Pressed by anti-Jewish laws of Austria he went to Leipzig and…
SAMPSON, John. Schull, County Cork 25.2.1862 — West Kirkby, Cheshire 9.11.1931. British (Irish) Librarian and Gipsy Scholar. Son of James S., a chemist and mining engineer from Cornwall, and Sarah Anne MacDermott. The family moved to Liverpool, when he was nine.He was mainly self-taught as he early lost his father…
ROCA Y LÓPEZ, Pedro.Tarancón (Cuenca) 9.10.1856 — Madrid 21.1.1903. Spanish Scholar. Dr. In Sanskrit student of Gelabert y Gordiola, as librarian of Barcelona University gave first Sanskrit teaching there. Later in Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid Publications: Review of Gelabert y Gordiola’s Manual de lengua sanscrita in La Unión católica 24. &…
PEARSON, James (Jim) Douglas. Cambridge ?.12.1911 — Cambridge 1.8.1997. British Librarian. Of humble origins, grew up in Cambridge and was employed from the age of 16 as book-fetcher in the University Library there. He developed a taste for “exotic languages” and won a scholarship for Hebrew at St. John’s College.…
OPPERT, Gustav Salomon. Hamburg 30.7.1836 — Berlin 1.3.1908 (or 17.3.). German Indologist in India. Professor in Madras. Son of Eduard Oppert (originally Oppenheimer) and Henriette Gans, brother of —> Jules O. and Ernst Jacob O. (1832–1903) who was a merchant in Shanghai and visited three times Korea. Educated at Johanneum in…
MORLEY, William Hook. 1815 — London 21.5.1860. British Oriental Scholar. Son of George M., a lawyer. “Educated for the legal profession, called to the bar in 1840. A notable Oriental scholar, well versed in Arabic and Persian literature. Member of the R.A.S. from 1847, Librarian to the Society from 1859.”…
MEIER, Franz Josef. 1906 — 1987. German Librarian, began his career as Indologist. Librarian in Munich. Ph.D. 1931 München. In 1937-70 librarian at Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich, after the WW II as director of the Ostasiensammlung. Thus he turned from Indian studies to East Asia. Publications: Diss. publ. as “Der…
SCHWAB, Julius. 17.4.1852 — 1928. German Librarian and Student of Indology. Born in a Roman Catholic family. Studies at Munich under E. Kuhn. Ph.D. 1882 Munich. From 1882 Hilfsarbeiter at Grossherzogliche Badische Hof- und Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe, from 1887 at university library in Freiburg i.Br. (1890 custos, 1900 librarian, still…
STRONG, Sandford Arthur. London 10.4.1863 — London 18.1.1904. British Semitic and Pāli Scholar. Son of Thomas Banks Strong, of the War Office, and Anna Lawson. After school worked as clerk at Lloyd’s and attended classes at King’s College in London. From 1881 studies of Sanskrit (under Bendall) and Semitics at…