WILKINS, Charles. Frome, Somerset bapt. 21.6.1749 (not 1750!) — London 13.5.1833. Sir. British Pioneer of Indology. In India 1770-86. Son of Hugh Wilkins (Sengupta Walter Wilkins) and Mary Wray, a modest family. Trained as a printer. Joining the E.I.C.’s service he came to India as a Writer in July 1770…
WESTMACOTT, Edward Vesey. Chastleton, Oxfordshire 1839 (or 1840?) — 1911. BritishCivil Servant in India. Son of Rev. Horatio W. (1806–1862) and Penelope Spencer Ruscombe. B.A. Oxford. Served in Bengal. Married 1874 Annie Mary Charlotte Richards (1850–1936), divorce 1898, three sons. Publications: Letter on the Identification of ancient towns in Bengal, ProcASB…
WESTERGAARD, Niels Ludvig. Copenhagen 27.10.1815 — Copenhagen 9.9.1878. Danish Indologist and Iranian Scholar. Professor in Copenhagen. Son of a master carpenter, Niels Nielsen W. (1772–1835) and Sophie Magdalene Nyeborg. As a schoolboy he became interested, from the example of Rask, in comparative linguistics and Oriental languages. From 1833 studied at…
WEST, Edward William. London 2.5.1824 — Watford, Hertfordshire 4.5.1905. British Indologist and Iranian Scholar in India. Born in a family of architects and engineers, both parents had been in India (father William West in Bombay, mother Margaret Anderson in Calcutta), elder brother of —> A. A. West (1827–1913). In 1839-42…
WEST, Arthur Anderson. London 23.8.1827 — Theydon Bois, Essex 1913. British Engineer in India. Son of William West and Margaret Anderson, younger brother of —> E. W. West (1824–1905), whom he assisted in his epigraphical studies. Educated at King’s College. Went to India in 1847. Engineer, like his brother involved…
WEISSBACH, Franz Heinrich. Chemnitz 25.11.1865 — Markkleeberg near Leipzig 20.2.1944. German Assyriologist. Librarian in Leipzig. Son of Franz Robert Weissbach, a hat maker, and Clara Auguste Leonhardt. Gymnasium in Zwickau. From 1885 studies of classical and Oriental (F. Delitzsch) philology and theology at Leipzig. Ph.D. 1889 Leipzig. From 1888 working…
WATSON, John Whaley. India 25.12.1837 — Rajkot, Gujarat 24.3.1889. British Colonial Officer in India, interested in Archaeology and History. Son of Colonel John Willis Watson of Bombay Artillery and Emma Armitage. Served in Bombay Staff Corps. In the end of the 1870s President of Rājasthānik Court in Kathiawar, in 1881-89 political…
WATHEN, William Henry. Gloucestershire 31.12.1794 — Cape Town 28.6.1866, when 71. British Civil Servant in India. Son of Samuel Wathen and Elizabeth Sheppard. In Bombay as early as 1810. In the 1820s and early 1830s Persian secretary to Bombay Government, in 1837/38 Chief Secretary to it. Introduced to Oriental studies…
WALSH, Ernest Herbert Cooper. Derbyshire 7.3.1865 — 30.4.1952 (when 87). British Civil Servant in India, Numismatist and Tibetan Scholar. Son of a Wesleyan minister, Thomas Harris Walsh, and Catherine Jane Tull. Educated at Trent College. Studied law at University College, London. In 1884 joined I.C.S. From 1901 Deputy Commissioner of…
RICHARDSON, Hugh Edward. St.Andrews 22.12.1905 — St.Andrews 3.12.2000. British (Scottish) Tibetologist. Son of an army medical officer, Colonel Hugh Richardson, and grandson of an I.C.S. officer (Henry Cockburn R.), his mother was Elizabeth McClean. After Trinity School in Glenalmond studied classics at Keble College, Oxford. In 1928 (or 1930?) he…