LEDRUS, Michel. Gossellies, Wallonia 21.12.1899 — Rome 20.8.1983. S.J. Father. Belgian Theologian interested in Indian Thought. B.Litt. Ph.D. D.D. Taught at Louvain (1931) and at Università Gregoriana in Rome (1932-33), then apparently in Calcutta until 1939. Back in Rome, again teaching at Gregoriana. From 1949 spiritual director of Collegio Internazionale…
LEACH, Abigail. Brockton, MA 28.5.1855 — Poughkeepsie, co. Dutchess, NY 29.12.1918. U.S. Greek Scholar and Pioneer of Female Education. Born as the daughter of the shoe manufacturer Marcus Leach (1810–1910) and Eliza Paris Bourne. Through her insistent demands to Harvard professors the Harvard Annex for women (now Radcliffe College) was…
LAYARD, Frederic Peter. Bath 6.5.1818 — Westminster 21.5.1891. British Colonial Officer in India. Son of Peter Henry John Layard (1789–1834) and Marianne Austen. His elder brother, Sir Henry Austen Layard (1817–1894) was famous in Assyrian archaeology. Entered E.I.C.’s army in 1838, served in many places in northern India. Colonel 1864,…
LATTER, Thomas. India 1816 — Prome, Burma 8.12.1853. British Colonial Officer in Burma. Captain. Son of Major Barré Latter (1777–1822) and Juliana Anne Jeffreys (1793–1871). In 1836 joined Bengal Native Infantry, stationed in Arakan. Assistant Commissioner in Arakan, then Regional Superintendent of Forests in Burma, finally Deputy Commissioner in the…
LASERON, Nathan Edward (originally Nathan Ferdinand Laseron). Königsberg 15.8.1815 — Ootacamund 5.12.1868. Rev. German Missionary in Kerala. From East Prussia, born in a Jewish family, son of Wulf Saul L. (1784–1829) and Henrietta Simeon (d. 1829). Moved to Edinburgh. Connected with Church of Scotland he worked in Cochin preaching to local…
LANDON, Perceval. Hastings, Sussex 29.3.1869 — London 23.7.1927. British Author, Traveller and Journalist. Son of Rev. Edward Henry Landon (1817–1877), of Huguenot descent, and Caroline Perceval. Educated at Forest School in Walthamstow, London. From 1888 studies at Hertford College, Oxford, graduated 1892. Called to the bar from Inner Temple, but…
LAMBRICK, Samuel. 1768 — 1854. Rev. British Missionary in Sri Lanka. In 1817 left for Ceylon with his wife in company of Joseph Knight, Robert Major and Benjamin Ward. After a time in Kandy in 1822 founded Kotta as the centre of the Church Missionary Society near Colombo and opened…
LACEY, William Carey (not Charles?). 1831 — 1870. Rev. Baptist Missionary in India. Son of Charles Lacey (1798–1853), also a missionary in Orissa (from 1823), and his wife Ann Merriman. Himself resided in Cuttack at least from 1851. Directed the Orissa Mission Press founded by his father together with Amos…
KUDZINOWSKI, Czesław. Wodziłówka, Podlasia 8.10.1908 — Poznań 2.3.1988. Polish Linguist, beside Indo-European also Specialist of Finno-Ugrian and Uralic. Professor in Poznań. Son of a small farmer. From 1928 studies of theology at Wilno (then Polish, now Lithuanian Vilnius), soon switched to IE linguitics. M.A. 1935. In 1935-37 further studies of…
KUCHARSKI, Heinz. Hamburg 22.7.1919 — Markranstädt, Kr. Leipzig 8.10.2000. German Ethnologist of South Asia. Son of engineer Walter Kucharski (1887–1958) and Hildegard Heinrichs. After school in Hamburg from 1938 studies of philosophy, ethnology and Oriental languages at Hamburg. He was Communist and was imprisoned by Gestapo in 1943, in April…