Herbert Allen Giles was a British diplomat and sinologist who was the professor of Chinese at Cambridge University for 35 years. Giles was educated at Charterhouse School before becoming a British diplomat in China from 1867-1892. He modified a Mandarin Chinese romanisation system established by Thomas Wade, resulting in the widely known Wade–Giles Chinese romanisation system. Among his many works were translations of the Analects of Confucius, the Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching), the Chuang Tzu, and, in 1892, A Chinese-English Dictionary.
Sir Edwin Arnold was an English poet and journalist. He was born in Gravesend, Kent, and educated in Rochester and Oxford before becoming a schoolmaster in Birmingham. In 1856 he went to India as Principal of the Government Sanskrit College at Poona. He returned to England in 1861 and worked as a journalist for the Daily Telegraph. He was best known as a poet and specifically for interpreting Eastern philosophy and life in English verse. His chief work with this object is "The Light of Asia", or "The Great Renunciation", a poem of eight books in blank verse.
Sir Ernest Mason Satow was born in London and educated at Mill Hill School and University College, London. Satow was an exceptional linguist, an energetic traveller, a writer of travel guidebooks, a dictionary compiler, a mountaineer, a keen botanist, and a major collector of Japanese books and manuscripts on all kinds of subjects. He served in Japan and China as a diplomat and was Britain's second plenipotentiary at the Second Hague Peace Conference.
Charles Philip Brown was born in Calcutta on November 10, 1798 to Rev. David Brown, a missionary, who learnt Sanskrit and other native languages to help him in his work. After his father's death in 1812, Brown moved to England and was selected for a job with the East India Company. He arrived in Madras in 1817, proceeded to learn Telugu, and by 1824 had formed a life-long interest in the literature of the language. His frustrating experiences in learning Telugu caused him to begin compiling a dictionary and grammar text which are still used today.
He also amassed collection of more than 5000 manuscripts in Telegu, Sanskrit and other languages, either as originals or transcriptions at a cost of some 30,000 rupees. By 1845, he had placed his collection with the Madras Literary Society and had compiled the catalogues which comprise this collection in 1847.
Ill heath caused him to leave India in 1855, but he retained his interest in Telugu and was appointed professor of Telugu in London University in 1865, continuing to add new words to his dictionary almost till the end of his life. He died on the 12th of December 1884.
Dr. Dennis John Duncanson (sometimes referred to as John Dennis Duncanson) (26 May 1917 - 15 April 1998) was a British Overseas Civil Servant and academic who specialised in Asian studies. Duncanson had extensive experience of the Indian Ocean area, from East Africa to China. After joining the Colonial Service, Duncanson became aide-de-camp to the Governor of Hong Kong, and subsequently joined the administration in what was then Malaya. In 1961, Duncanson was invited to join the British Advisory Mission in Saigon and worked as Counsellor in Aid at the British Embassy in Saigon during the mid-sixties, being later awarded an OBE.
On returning to England, Duncanson joined the staff of the University of Kent at Canterbury, where he became Reader, and set up the Centre for South-East Asian Studies. His book, Government and Revolution in Vietnam was written whilst the Vietnam War was still in progress, and found its place as recommended reading in politics and government at several universities.
In 1969, Duncanson was elected to the Council at the Royal Asiatic Society, and in 1977 became its Director. He was President in 1982-5, and served another two terms as Director in 1986-9 and 1992-5. He died in 1998 at Osborne House in the Isle of Wight.