Serie RAS TGM/24 - 1965 – Professor G.H. Luce

Gordon Hannington Luce was born in Gloucester. He graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, with a degree in Classics. In 1912 Luce was appointed Lecturer in English Literature at Government College, Rangoon, later a constituent college of the University of Rangoon. There he developed a lasting friendship with the young Pali scholar, Pe Maung Tin, and married his sister, Ma Tee Tee. During the Japanese invasion in 1942 Luce and his wife escaped into India. He returned to Rangoon after the war and remained there until 1964, when, like other foreigners, he was forced to leave the country. His final fifteen years were spent on Jersey. He published widely on subjects relating to Burma.

Sir Richard Olaf Winstedt was born in Oxford and graduated from New College, Oxford. In 1902 he became a cadet in the Federated Malay States Civil Service, and was posted to Perak where he studied Malay language and culture. In 1913 he was appointed District Officer in Kuala Pilah, and in 1916 appointed to the Education Department. In 1920 he received his DLitt degree from Oxford. He served as the first President of Raffles College, Singapore, 1928–1931. During his presidency, he also served as acting Secretary to the High Commissioner, 1923, Director of Education for Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States (FMS), as a member of Legislative Council, Straits Settlements, 1924–1931 and as a member of the FMS Federal Council, 1927–1931. He was president of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1927, 1929 and 1931. After a term as General Adviser to Johore, 1931–1935, Winstedt retired from the Malayan Civil Service. He returned to England and was appointed Lecturer, then Reader, and ultimately Honorary Fellow, in Malay, at the School of Oriental Studies in London, where he also served as a member of the Governing Body, 1939–1959. During World War II, he broadcast in Malay to Japanese-occupied Malaya. He retired from active teaching in 1946.

Winstedt was very involved with the Royal Asiatic Society towards the end of his teaching career. He serving multiple terms as the Society's Director (1940-43, 1946-49, 1952-55, 1958-61) and President (1943-46, 1949-52, 1955-58, 1961-64). In recognition of all this administrative work as well as of his scholarship he was awarded, in 1947, the Society's Gold Medal. He was elected as the Society's Honorary Vice-President in 1964.