SKREFSRUD, Lars (Laurentius Olsen). Fåberg in Oppland 4.2.1840 — Benagaria (now in Jharkand) 11.12.1910. Norwegian Missionary in India. Born in a modest family, son of Ole Nielsen Skrefsrud and Eli Døsen (1808–1856). His father had alcoholic problem and the boy got almost no education. In his troubled youth he was imprisoned for…
SHAKESPEAR, John. Indore 1.9.1861 — 1942. British Colonial Officer in India. Son of Colonel Sir Richmond Campbell Shakespear (1812–61, served in India) and Marian Sophia Thompson (1825–1899). “Educated at Wellington College and Sandhurst, entered the Army, 1881, and became Major, 1895. Intelligence Officer, Lushai and Chin-Lushai expeditions, 1888-9, … Superintendent,…
SHAFER, Robert Lloyd (Schafer). 1893 — 1969. U.S. Linguist and Sino-Tibetan scholar. Ph.D. Director of Sino-Tibetan Linguistic Project at U.C. Berkeley. Famous, but rather much criticised for his brave hypotheses. Publications: “Nahālī, a linguistic study in paleoethnography”, HJAS 5, 1940, 346-371; “Linguistics in History”, JAOS 67, 1947, 296-305; other articles.…
WOLFENDEN, Stuart N. 1889 — 28.12.1938 (when 47). U.S. Tibeto-Burman Linguist. At University of California, Berkeley. Wolfenden was one of the pioneers of comparative Tibeto-Burman linguistics. Publications: Outlines of Tibeto-Burman Linguistic Morphology with special reference to the prefixes, infixes and suffixes of classical Tibetan and the languages of the Kachin, Bodo,…
WEIDERT, Alfons Klaus. 21.3.1943 — Bangkok 24.7.1988. German Tibeto-Burman Linguist. Ph.D. 1971 Heidelberg. PD 1982 Kiel. In 1981-84 Chief-Supervisor of the German-Nepalese field-project Linguistic Survey of Nepal. Collected material through field study among more than 40 Tibeto-Burman languages. But he was hard on his informants and lost his research position…
RUNDALL, Frank Montagu (“Montie”). Madras 18.5.1851 — Tynemouth, Northumberland 25.4.1930. British Colonial Officer in India. Son of General Francis Hornblow R. (1823–1908), an irrigation engineer in India, and Fanny Ada Seton Burn. “Educated at Marlborough; joined the Berkshire regt., and Indian Staff Corps. Served in Upper Burma on Staff of…
LYALL, Charles James. London 9.3.1845 — London 1.9.1920. Sir. British Civil Servant and Oriental (Arabic and Urdu) Scholar. Son of Charles L., a banker, and Harriet Matheson. Educated at King’s College School and College, studies at Balliol College, Oxford (B.A. 1867). Joined the Bengal Civil Service in 1867 and served…
LORRAIN, James Herbert (Mizo “Pu Buanga”). 6.2.1870 — London 8.1.1944. Rev. British (Scottish) Baptist Missionary in Assam. Grew up on South London where his father was postmaster. Worked as telegraphist in a post office, but left to India as missionary in 1890. With —> F. W. Savidge he arrived 1894…
HANNAY, Simon Fraser. Inverness 12.11.1801 — Dibrugarh, Assam 30.1.1861. British (Scottish) Colonial Officer in India. Son of Henry Hannay (1766–1822) and Helen Fraser (1777–1815). From 1820 Ensign in Bengal Light Infantry. From 1836 served in Assam, in 1839-61 commander of the 1st Assam Light Infantry. Colonel. Pioneer of Assam tea…
HAARH, Erik Helge. Frederiksberg 20.9.1929 — 1.12.1993. Danish Scholar of Tibetan and Comparative Religion. Professor in Aarhus. Son of Georg Emil Halvor Haarh, an engineer, and his wife Laurene Kristine. Matriculated in 1948. Studies of history of religions and Eastern languages at Copenhagen (S. A. Pallis, K. Grønbech, Tuxen &…