KLEEN (af Kleen), Tyra. Stockholm 29.3.1874 — Stockholm 17.9.1951. Swedish Painter interested in South and South-East Asia. Daughter of Richard Kleen (1841-1923), diplomat and juridical author, and Maria Charlotta Amelia Wattrang. Educated at home, mainly by her grandfather Nils Adolf Wattrang (d. 1890), in the 1890s art studies in Germany…
HINLOOPEN LABBERTON, Dirk van. Doesburg, Gelderland 24.9.1874 — Ojai, Calif. 3.9.1961. Dutch Theosophist interested in Sanskrit, lived a long time in Indonesia. Son of the bookseller Richard van Hinloopen Labberton (1840–1897) and Regina Henke van Assen. Matriculated 1893 from Arnhem, he went in 1894 to Indonesia and worked as employee…
HENSELER, Eugène Éric de. Fribourg 1889 — Geneva 1960. Swiss Teacher and Former Student of Indian Religion, a Theosophist. Born in a Swiss family originating from Aarau, but living in Fribourg. Educated partly in England, also in Fribourg and Lausanne. Ph.D. 1928 Fribourg. Teacher in Geneva (1937). Married Carmen von Zeisen,…
FIELD, Dorothy (Mrs. Norman Dudley Short). 1884 — 1968. Lady. British Writer, Musician and Woman Activist. In 1923-27 reporter for The Times Educational Supplement. She was much interested in Theosophy, but did not join the Society. Her book on Sikhism was based on Macauliffe’s work. In 1922 she married Norman…
DYNOWSKA, Wanda (Umādevī). St.Petersburg 30.6.1888 — Mysore 20.3.1971. Polish Theosophist in India. Born in Russia in a family of Polish nobility, daughter of Eustachy Dynowski and Helena Sokołowska. Grew up mainly in the family estate in present-day Latvia, educated at home. Studied in Cracow and Lausanne, during WW I in…
COUSINS, James Henry Sproull. Belfast 22.7.1873 — Madanapalle 20.2.1956. Irish author (poet and dramatist), critic and teacher. Born in a family of Huguenot origin, son of merchant James Cousins and Susan Davey. Worked as a clerk, in 1897 moved to Dublin, where he befriended with Joyce, Russell and Yeats, living…
COHEN, Sulman Samuel. Basra, Iraq 1895 — Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai 1980. A Baghdadi Jew in India. Eldest of the eleven children of a very poor Jewish family he came to Bombay as a young man, worked as shop assistant and trained as accountant. There he also joined Theosophical Society and…
BOISSEVAIN, Jan Wilhelm. Amsterdam 27.9.1874 — Velp, Rheden, Gelderland 24.3.1959. Dutch Indologist and Theosophist. Son of Gideon Maria Boissevain and Louise Caroline toe Laer. Ph.D. 1905 Leiden (under Speyer). Gymnasium teacher of Dutch and History in Amsterdam. Publications: Diss. Het indische tooneelstuk Prabodhacandrodaya. 1. Toelichting en beoordeeling. 400 p. Leiden…
BLAVATSKY, Helena Petrovna (née Hahn, Russian Jelena Petrovna Blavatskaja, née Gan). Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipro in Ukraine) 12.8.1831 — London 9.5.1891. Russian Noblewoman, the Founder of the Theosophical Society. Born in Ukraina as daughter of colonel Peter Hahn, of a noble family of Mecklenburg settled in Russia. Married at 17 a…
BESANT, Annie (née Wood). London 1.10.1847 — Adyar (Madras) 19.9.1933. British Theosophist. Daughter of William Burton Persse Wood (1816–1852) and Emily Morris, an English-Irish family. Lost early her father, educated privately in England, Germany and France. Married Rev. Frank Besant (d. 1917) in 1867, but was legally separated from him…