Series RAS TGM/13 - 1932 - Sir Aurel Stein

Lawrence John Lumley Dundas, 2nd Marquess of Zetland, was an administrator in India, politician, and author. He served as Secretary of State for India from 1935 to 1937 and Secretary of State for India and Burma from 1937 to 1940. He was styled Lord Dundas until 1892 and Earl of Ronaldshay between 1892 and 1929.

Marc Aurel Stein was born in Budapest in 1862. He first studied Sanskrit with Roth and Geldner in Tübingen and subsequently came to London in 1883 to continue his study of oriental languages. He went as Registrar to Lahore University in 1887 and became Principal of the Oriental College in 1888. He was interested in Central Asia both in its geography, archaeology and strategic position. Stein is renowned for his archaeological exploration in Eastern Central Asia (1900-01, 1906-08, 1913-16, 1930-31), India, Iran, Iraq and Jordan, and for his pioneering work on the early civilizations of the Silk Road. He is especially famous for the discovery of the hidden library of documents and Buddhist paintings at the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas (Qianfodong) at Dunhuang, Gansu province, China.

He became a British national in 1904. Stein received a number of honours throughout his career. This Collection reveals some of them. He was conferred with the Gold Medal of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1943. Stein wrote extensively about his travels and within the RAS Collections are original photographs from which the plates were taken for his many publications. Stein died in Kabul on 26 October 1943 and is buried in Kabul's British Cemetery.

Desmond Murree Fitzgerald Hoysted was born at Murree in the Panjab, his father, who later became Surgeon-General, Madras Presidency, Indian Army, being then stationed in India. Educated at Kugby School and the Royal Military Academy, he was appointed to the Royal Engineers, and promoted in 1894 Lieutenant in the 26th Field Company, R.E. He served in the Alexandria Garrison of the British Army of Occupation in Egypt, and it was during this long service in Egypt that he acquired a taste for Oriental subjects. In 1930, retiring form the army, he took up the post of Secretary, Royal Asiatic Society, which he held for ten years until 1940.