BALL, Valentine. Dublin 14.7.1843 — Dublin 15.6.1895. Irish Scientist in India. Son of the naturalist scholar Robert Ball (1802–1857) and Amelia Gresley Hellicar. Educated in Chester and Dublin (Rathmines School), studies at Trinity College, Dublin (B.A. 1864, M.A. 1872, LL.D. 1889). In 1860-64 worked as clerk in Dublin. He then…
BAILEY, Harold Walter. Devizes, Wiltshire 16.12.1899 — 11.1.1996 (when 96), Cambridge. Sir (1960). British Indo-Iranian Scholar, Famous Specialist of the Khotan Saka. Professor in Cambridge. Son of Frederic Charles Quinton Bailey (1869–1952) and Emma Jane Reichardt (1871–1962). Born in England, he moved with his parents in 1910 to start a…
BACOT, Jacques. St.-Germain-en-Laye (Indre) 4.7.1877 — Paris 25.6.1965. French Traveller and Tibetologist. Born in a family of cloth merchants, son of Raymond Bacot (1843–1917), owner of a ceramic factory, and Marie Louise Bapterosses. With father and grandfather, who were experienced travellers, he himself made a journey round the world in…
AYRTON, Edward Russell. Wuhu, prove. Anhui, China 17.12.1882 — Tissamaharama 18.5.1914. British Archaeologist in Sri Lanka. Son of William Scrope Ayrton (1849–1904), of China Consular Service, and Ellen Louisa McClatchie (1855–1897). The family came from Yorkshire. Educated at St.Paul’s School in London. Archaeological training in Europe and Egypt (as Flinders…
AYMONIER, Étienne-François. Le Châtelard (Savoie) 26.2.1844 — Paris 21.1.1929. French Colonial Officer and South-East Asian Scholar (the first European Specialist of Khmer and great pioneer of archaeology and epigraphy). Served in South-East Asia in 1869-88. Born in a family of agriculturalists in the then still Sardinian Savoy, son of Claude…
ATKINSON, Robert. Gateshead, Yorkshire 6.4.1839 — Rathmines near Dublin 10.1.1908. British Linguist (IE, Celtic and Sanskrit Scholar) in Ireland. Professor in Dublin. Born in Yorkshire as the only child of businessman John Atkinson and his wife Ann. Educated at Anchorage grammar school in Yorkshire. Studies at Trinity College in Dublin…
ARROWSMITH, Robert C. Brooklyn, N.Y. 23.11.1860 — ?.6.1928. U.S. Linguist and Classical Scholar interested in Sanskrit. Son of Milton John Arrowsmith (1822–1907) and Phebe Wood Platt. Studies at Columbia University: A.B. 1882, A.M. 1883, Ph.D. 1884; University Fellow in 1882-83 and 1885-86. In 1884-85 further studies at Berlin University. Assistant…
ARNOLD, Edward Vernon. South Norwood, London 18.7.1857 — 19.9.1926. British Indologist and Classical Scholar. Son of Rev. Charles Maddock Arnold (1812–1876) and his wife Jane, educated at Westminster School. Studies at Cambridge (Trinity College, learned Sanskrit from Cowell) and Tübingen (R. Roth), graduated from Cambridge B.A. in 1879, M.A. 1882.…
ARIS, Michael Vaillancourt. Havana, Cuba 7.3.1946 — Oxford 27.3.1999. British Tibetan Scholar, Specialist of Bhutan. Son of English father (John Arundel Aris, 1917–1989, a British Council Officer) and Canadian French mother (Josette Marie Émilie Vaillancourt, 1917–2009), one of identical twins (brother Anthony Aris, 1046–2015, a publisher specialised in Himalayan and…
ARBMAN, Ernst Gottfrid. Sundsvall 12.4.1891 — Stockholm 16.11.1959. Swedish Scholar of Indology and Comparative Religion. Son of Olof Emanuel Arbman (1817–1921), vicar in Borgsjö, and Maria Kristina Hasselberg, educated in Östersund. Studies at Uppsala, first of Theology (Cand.Theol. 1914), then Indology (under Johansson and Charpentier) and Religion, Cand. Philos. 1917,…