CHEVALIER, Jean-Baptiste. Blois 23.4.1729 — Blois 30.4.1789. French Traveller in India and Tibet. Son of Jean-Bapt. Ch., a lawyer and royal adviser. In French colonial service left for Bengal in 1752, in 1755-57 explored still independent Assam, trying without success to get an agreement with the Raja. In 1760-61 visited…
CHARDIN, Jean-Baptiste (Sir John Chardin). Paris 16.11.1643 (Julian 6.11.) — Chiswick, London 5.1.1713 (25.12.1712). French Huguenot Jeweller and Traveller. Sent to the east by his father, the Parisian jeweller Daniel Ch. in 1664 he visited Persia (entering the service of Shah Abbas II in Isfahan), Surat and other places in…
CARRÉ, Barthélémy. c. 1636 — after 1699. Abbé. French Traveller. Of Blois, educated by Jesuits, took religious career and was ordained. From 1662 served in the navy, apparently as chaplain, in Atlantic, Mediterranian and Levant. Sent by Colbert with F. Caron to Madagascar, they arrived at Surat in 1669. Carré…
BURTON, Richard Francis. Barnham House, Hertfordshire 19.3.1821 — Trieste 20.10.1890 (Dingle & Garrett: born in Torquay, Devon, Penzer explains: born in Toquay, baptised in Elstree, Herts). Sir. British (partly of Irish origin) Oriental Scholar, Pioneer of Anthropology, Traveller and Diplomat. Son of colonel Joseph Netterville B. (1782–1857) and Martha Beckwith…
BURNES, Alexander. Montrose, Angus 16.5.1805 — Kabul 2.11.1841. Sir. British (Scottish) Colonial Officer (Lieutenant-Colonel) and Traveller in India, Afghanistan and Central Asia. Son of James B. (peovost and a cousin of the poet Robert Burns) and Elizabeth Glegg, brother of —> James B. After attending the famous college of his…
BUCHANAN-HAMILTON, Francis (until 1815 Francis Buchanan, then Francis Hamilton). Branziet, Callander, Pertshire 15.2.1762 — Callander 15.6.1829. British (Scottish) Physician in India, Traveller and Naturalist, a Pioneer of Burmese Studies and of Indian Archaeology. Son of Thomas B., a physician, and Elizabeth Hamilton, took himself a M.D. at Edinburgh in 1783…
BRIGGS, Henry George. Bombay 20.10.1824 — Bombay 4.7.1872. British Merchant, Traveller, and Orientalist. Son of Henry Briggs. In 1843 travelled in South Africa, in 1845 in China. In 1846 settled at the office of Briggs & Co. in Bombay. For a while lived in Karachi (1854/55), then from 1856 Assistant…
BOWREY (Bowry), Thomas. Wapping, London 7.9.1659 — 1?.7.1713. British Sea Captain in the East. Came to Madras as a child of 7 after the 1666 great fire of London. In India and South-East Asia in as sailing master, then captain, until 1688. If the Hudson Bay Dictionary is by him,…
BOWER, Hamilton St.Clair. Portsea Island, Hampshire 1.9.1858 — North Berwick, East Lothian 5.3.1940. Sir. British (Scottish) Colonial Officer and Traveller in Central Asia. Son of Admiral James Paterson Bower (1806–1889) and Barbara Hickson (from Ireland). Educated in Edinburgh and at Royal Naval School. Served in British India from 1884. As…
BONN, Gisela (nom-de-plume of Gisela Döhrn). Elberfeld near Wuppertal 22.9.1909 — Stuttgart 11.10.1996. German Journalist. Daughter of Heinz Döhrn, a teacher. From 1929 studied Musicology, Theatre, art history, Germanistics and French at Köln, Rostock and Vienna. Ph.D. 1936 Vienna (diss. on Brahms). In 1936 married the journalist Hermann Pörzgen (1905–1976),…