GROUSSET, René Jean François Marie. Aubais (Gard) 5.9.1885 — Paris 12.11(9?).1952. French Historian of Asia. Lost his father before birth (Louis-Xavier-René Gr. 1860–1885, historian and poet). After history studies at Montpellier moved to Paris and started Museum work. Participated in the WW I and was seriously wounded in 1915. From…
GIRARD DE RIALLE, Julien. Paris 27.9.1841 — Santiago (Chile) 23.11.1904. French Civil Servant and Diplomat interested in Indology and Ethnology. Graduated in 1861, travelled anonymously in the Balkans and wrote travel accounts. In 1865-66 by the order of French government in Syria. Privately he studied Sanskrit, Avestan and linguistics (also…
FRANKE, Alwin Wilhelm Otto. Gernrode, Harz 27.9.1863 — Berlin 5.8.1946. German Sinologist (started with Indology). Son of the Burgermeister Friedrich F. (1831–1889; from 1876 director of a prison in Coswig) and Henriette Ziegler (1832–1917). In 1882-87 studies of history, soon also of Indology and law at Freiburg, Berlin, Göttingen and…
ERDMANN, Franz von (Russian Fëdor Ivanovič Èrdman, born Friedrich Franz Ludwig Erdmann). Ludwigslust, Mecklenburg 15.3.1793 (or 1795?) — Kazan 2/14.2.1862. German Historian of Asia in Russia. Son of Johann Ernst Friedrich E., a vicar, and Luise Adel. Educated in Lübeck, studies at Rostock (O. G. Tychsen) and Göttingen. PD 1818…
ELIAS, Ney. Widmore, Bromley, Kent 10.2.1844 — London 31.5.1897. British Diplomat and Explorer. Son of Ney Elias, a merchant with Jewish background, and his wife Sophia, educated in London, Paris and Dresden. “Went to Shanghai in a merchant’s firm in 1866, led an expedition in 1868 to examine the channels…
COUVREUR, Walter. Antwerpen 25.7.1914 — Edegem 17.9.1996. Belgian Linguist and Scholar of Tocharian. After school in Antwerpen studies at Leuven, also under Sieg at Göttingen. Ph.D. Leuven 1936 in Oriental languages and 1938 in Classics. In 1938-44 researcher of Nationaal Fonds van Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek in Brussels. From 1945 Docent at…
CLAWITER, Walter. 1923 — 23.11.1970. German Indologist. Ph.D. Göttingen 1958 (?) under Waldschmidt. Edited Turfan texts and assisted the manuscript catalogue and dictionary of the Turfan fragments in Göttingen in the 1960s. He died of hypertension before he had completed his habilitation and his mother Maria Cl. (1896–1980) established Walter-Clawiter-Preis…
BOYER, Augustin-M. Vannes (Morbihar, Brittany) 20.11.1850 — 2.1.1938. Abbé, S.J. French Indologist and Epigraphist, a Catholic Priest. Educated at the Collège diocésain de Nantes, at the age of 20 a Jesuit novice, first in Angers, then in Saint-Acheul. In addition to philosophy and theology studied mathematics with success. In 1884…
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…
BERNŠTAM, Aleksandr Natanovič. Kerch (Kerč), Crimea 1.(14.)10.1910 — Leningrad 10.12.1956 (when 47). Russian Central Asian Archaeologist. Educated in Sevastopol. Graduated 1931 from Leningrad Institute of History, Philology and Linguistics. Kand. ist. nauk 1935, Dr. ist. nauk 1943. In 1932-35 naučnyj sotrudnik at Hermitage, 1934-56 at Academy of History of Material…