CRAWFURD, John. Islay, Hebrides 13.8.1783 — South Kensington, London 11.5.1868. British (Scottish) Physician, Colonial Officer and South-East Asian Scholar. Son of the physician Samuel Crawfurd and Margaret Campbell, educated at Bowmore. Then studies of medicine at Edinburgh, M.D. From 1803 served as an army medical officer chiefly in Upper India…
CORDIER, Henri. New Orleans 8.8.1849 — Paris 16.3.1925. French Scholar of Asian History. Son of Ernest-Eugène Cordier (1811?–1880), a Savoyan working in the U.S.A. as businessman and banker, and Amélie-Henriette Oudin. In 1852 he came to France with his mother and was educated in Paris, also while his parents were…
CORAL-RÉMUSAT, Gilberte de (née Gilberte Joanne Marie de Rémusat). Paris 17.12.1903 — Lausanne 18.10.1943. Mme. French Art Historian of South and South-East Asia. The only daughter of Pierre, comte de Rémusat (1864–1946), a politician, and Germaine Stieldorff, grandniece of —> Abel-Rémusat (1788–1832). Visited Angkor and met Finot and Goloubew, then studied at…
CŒDÈS, George (Georges). Paris 10.8.1886 — Neuilly-sur-Seine 2.10.1969. French South-East Asian Scholar (Historian and Epigraphist). Son of bank director Hippolyte Cœdès and Marie Carette. The family is sometimes claimed to have Hungarian Jewish origin, but according to Wikipedia his ancestors were already living in Strasbourg before 1740. Educated at Lycée…
CABATON, Antoine. Nérondes (Cher) 11.12.1863 — Vannes, Brittany 25.11.1942. French Physician and a Scholar of South-East Asia and Indonesia. Grew up in Paris and Orléans. Studies of pharmacy, then, after military service (1884-86), of medicine (Dr.med.), now also of Sanskrit at É.P.H.É. (Lévi) and Egyptology at École du Louvre. Soon…
BURNEY, Henry. 27.2.1792 — at sea 4.3.1845. British Colonial Officer (Captain, 1834 Lieutenant-Colonel) and Diplomat in South-East Asia (Burma). Son of Richard Thomas Burney (1768–1808) and his wife Jane, father was the headmaster of Orphan School at Kidderpore near Calcutta. Joined Indian army in 1807. Attached to the 20th Marine…
BÉNISTI (Monié-Bénisti, also Bénisti-Monié, née Sarfati), Mireille. Algier 10.10.1909 — 11.12. 1993. French Art Historian (Buddhist and Khmer Art). Born in Algeria came early to Paris. Suffered of ill health, but in November 1943 she joined the Comité Français de la Liberation Nationale in Algier, and worked after the war…
AYMONIER, Étienne-François. Le Châtelard (Savoie) 26.2.1844 — Paris 21.1.1929. French Colonial Officer and South-East Asian Scholar (the first European Specialist of Khmer and great pioneer of archaeology and epigraphy). Served in South-East Asia in 1869-88. Born in a family of agriculturalists in the then still Sardinian Savoy, son of Claude…
AUBOYER, Jeannine. Paris 6.9.1912 — Sèvres near Paris 6.2.1990. French Indologist (Art Historian). Conservator and Professor in Paris. Daughter of auctioneer Jean Auboyer (1881–1958), studies in Paris mainly at É.P.H.É. (under Pelliot, Przyluski and Mus) and École du Louvre 1929-34 (Hackin, Grousset and Stern), also at Inst. de l’Art et…
ALABASTER, Henry. Hastings 22.5.1836 — Bangkok 8.8.1884. British Diplomat in South-East Asia, interested in Buddhism. Son of James Chaloner Alabaster and Harriet Woodman, educated at King’s College, London. Served as interpreter to British consulate-general in Bangkok 1864-71 (Wikipedia says from 1856), finally acting consul. Returned then to England and lived…