BOXER, Charles Ralph. Sandown, Isle of Wight 8.4.1904 — St.Albans, Hertfordshire 27.4.2000. British Historian of Early Colonial Asia. Son of Colonel Hugh Edward Richard Boxer (d. in war 1915) and Jane Patterson. Grew up in Dorset. Educated at Wellington College and Sandhurst. In 1923-47 served in Lincolnshire Regiment, first in…
BEHRSING, Siegfried. Bremerfeld, near Weissenstein (now Prääma in Estonia) 9.11.(27.10.)1903 — Berlin 5.4.1994. German (originally from Estonia) Sinologist and Buddhist Scholar, in the beginning also an Indologist. Professor in Berlin (East). Born in the then Russian Estonia as a son of the German teacher (tutor, later Oberlehrer), Arthur Behrsing (1873–1929),…
TIHONOV, Dmitrij Ivanovič. Rossija-Molotovo, gub. Tobolsk (now Vargašinskij raion, obl. Kurgansk) 18.(31.)10.1906 — Leningrad 27.1.1987. Russian Sinologist and Central Asian Scholar. Son of a farmer. Graduated 1936 from Leningrad. Kand. ist. nauk 1941, Dr. ist. n. 1968. In 1936-61 naučnyj sotrudnik at Oriental Institute in Leningrad (1943 staršij n. sotr.),…
SIMON, Ernst Julius Walter (Ximen Xuade). Berlin 10.6.1893 — London 22.2.1981. German Sinologist and Sino-Tibetan Scholar in the U.K. Professor in London. Son of mathematician Heinrich Simon (1859–1930) and Cläre Abraham (murdered in Ghetto Theresienstadt). Studies of classical and Romance philology in 1911-14 at Berlin, 1915-18 in army. Employed in…
PELLIOT, Paul. Paris 28.5.1878 — Paris 26.10.1945. French Sinologist and Central Asian Scholar. Professor in Paris. Son of merchant Charles Théodore P. and Marie Renault, educated in Paris. Studied in Paris for diplomatic career, but soon turned to Indology and Sinology under Lévi, Chavannes and Cordier. In 1900 joined the…
MEIER, Franz Josef. 1906 — 1987. German Librarian, began his career as Indologist. Librarian in Munich. Ph.D. 1931 München. In 1937-70 librarian at Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich, after the WW II as director of the Ostasiensammlung. Thus he turned from Indian studies to East Asia. Publications: Diss. publ. as “Der…
MAYERS, William Frederick. Hobart, Tasmania 7.1.1831 — Shanghai 24.3.1878. British Diplomat and Sinologist in China. Son of Rev. Michael John Mayers (1801–1881), colonial chaplain in Tasmania, in 1842 back to the U.K. Grew up in Marseille, where his father was now consulate chaplain. After a few years as journalist in…
LANGLÈS, Louis-Mathieu. Perenne (Welles-Pérennes) near St.Didier (Montdidier, Oise) 23.8.1763 — Paris 28.5.(28.1.?)1824. French Oriental (especially Persian) Scholar. Son of a farmer, according to his own claim, of local gentry. Joined the army, but was sickly and quitted after the disappointment of being not sent to India and went to Paris.…
SCHOTT, Wilhelm Christian. Mainz 3.9.1807 — Berlin 21.1.1889. German Fenno-Ugric and Central Asian Scholar, and Sinologist. Son of merchant Johann Wilhelm Schott and Elisabeth Wahl. Started as theology student at Giessen in 1819-21, but then switched to Oriental languages and studied them at Halle, first Arabic (Ph.D. 1823), soon also…
STAËL-HOLSTEIN, Alexander Wilhelm, Baron von (Aleksandr Avgustovič fon Stal’-Gol’štejn). Waist, Livonia (now Tõstamaa in SW Estonia) 20.12.1876 (1.1.1877) — Peiping (Peking) 16.3.1937. Russian/Estonian (German of Livonia) Indologist and Buddhist Scholar, after the revolution in China. Professor in Beijing. Born in a family of Livonian German nobility, son of August, Baron von…