SNESAREV, Andrej Evgen’evič. Staraja Kalitva, Ostrogožskij uezd (now Rossoš), gub. Voronež 1.(13.)12.1865 — Moscow 4.12.1937. Russian Officer, Geographer and Oriental Scholar. Lieutenant General. Son of Evgenij Petrovič Snesarev (1838–1882), an Orthodox priest, and Ekaterina Ivanovna Kurbatova. In 1884 matriculated from Novočerkassk. Studied mathematics and graduated 1888 from Moscow University, in…
SKRINE, Francis Henry Bennett. 1847 — 1933. British Civil Servant in India. Son of Rev. Clarmont Skrine, a retired officer in Wimbledon, and Mary Anne Bennett. Educated at Blackheath School; entered the I.C.S. 1868, served in Bengal and Bihar. In the 1880s worked on famine relief in Bihar and Madras.…
SIEGLING, Wilhelm. Erfurt 14.1.1880 — Berlin 22.1.1946. German Indologist and Tocharian Scholar. Research Scholar in Berlin. Educated in Erfurt and Eisleben. Studies of two terms at Halle, one term each at Heidelberg, Leipzig and Greifwald, then 1901-06 Sanskrit, Avestan and Tibetan at Berlin (Pischel). Ph.D. 1906 Berlin. On the advice…
SIEG, Emil Hermann. Breitenteich bei Angermünde, Uckermark, Brandenburg 12.8.1866 — Göttingen 23.1.1951. German Indologist and Tocharian Scholar. Professor in Kiel and Göttingen. Son of Hulius Ferdinand Sieg, a farmer and mill owner, and Malwine Stümke. Educated in Prenzlau. From 1885 studied classical philology at Berlin, then at Tübingen and Munich,…
SHAW, Robert Barkley. Upper Clapton, London 12.7.1839 — Mandalay, Burma 15.6.1879. British Traveller in Central Asia, then Civil Servant in Burma. Son of Robert Grant Shaw and Martha Barkley. “Educated at Marlborough and Trinity College, Cambridge, became a tea-planter in Kangra. Travelled in 1868 as a merchant to Eastern Turkestan,…
WOLFF, Joseph. Weilersbach near Bamberg 1795 — Isle Brewers, Somerset 2.5.1862. Rev. German Priest, Oriental Scholar and Traveller in Central Asia. Born in a Jewish family, his father David Wolff was a rabbi, his mother was Sarah. Educated in Stuttgart and Bamberg. After conversion to Catholic Christianity near Prague in…
WILLIAM OF RUBRUCK (Guglielmus de Rubruquis, Guillaume de Rubrouck, Willem van Ruysbroeck, Risbroucke). 1215/20 — after 1255. Flemish Traveller, a Franciscan Monk. Probably born in Rubrouck in French Flanders. In 1248 participated in the 7th Crusade. Head of the embassy sent by Louis IX of France to the Mongol Khan…
WARNER, Langdon. Cambridge, Mass. 1.8.1881 — ibid. 9.6.1955. U.S. Art Historian and Central Asian Explorer. Son of advocate Joseph Bangs Warner (1848–1923) and Margret Woodbury Storer. Educated at Harvard College (A.B. 1903). Participated in Pumpelly–Carnegie Expedition to Trans-Caspia in 1904-05. In 1906-13 Assistant Curator of Oriental Art in Museum of…
WALDSCHMIDT, Ernst Heinrich Franz. Lünen, Westfalen 15.7.1897 — Göttingen 25.2.1985. German Indologist and Buddhist Scholar. Professor in Göttingen. Son of Ernst Waldschmidt, a bookbinder and merchant, and Elise Goormann, the father died two months before his birth. Grew up with his mother and her parents in Lünen near Dortmund. Matriculated…
ROWLAND, Benjamin, Jr. Overbrook near Philadelphia 2.12.1904 — Cambridge Mass. 3.10.1972. U.S. Art Historian. Professor in Cambridge, Mass. Educated at St.Paul’s School in Concord, N.H., studies at Harvard (S.B. 1928, M.A. 1929). Ph.D. 1930 Harvard. Then teaching at Harvard: 1930-41 Instructor and Tutor, 1941-50 Associate Professor and 1950-72 Professor (Gleason…