Sir Gore Ouseley, 1st Baronet GCH, PC (24 June 1770 – 18 November 1844), was a British entrepreneur, linguist and diplomat. He was born in Ireland and educated at home. Whilst serving the British Government and posted in Lucknow he became a friend of the local Nawab Saadat Ali Khan and was responsible for building a palace called Dilkusha Kothi on the banks of the Gomti near Lucknow. This palace, a copy of the English Baroque stately home of Seaton Delaval Hall, stood for about fifty years until it was damaged in the Siege of Lucknow. Ouseley was made a baronet in 1808 with the recommendation of Lord Wellesley.
From 1810 Ouseley served as ambassador to Persia, the first ambassador since the time of Charles I. Ouseley was involved in negotiating treaties with Persia and Russia including the Treaty of Gulistan. He left Persia in 1814, stopping off in St Petersburg. While in Russia, he was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Russian Order of St. Alexander Nevsky.
Ouseley spent his final years in England and in 1835, he served as the High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire. He died in 1844 died at Hall Barn Park, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.
Sir George Thomas Staunton was born near Salisbury, the son of the diplomat, George Leonard Staunton. Aged 12, George Thomas accompanied his father on the Macartney Embassy to China, and his Chinese language ability was sufficient for conversation. In 1798 was appointed a writer in the British East India Company's factory at Canton (Guangzhou), and subsequently its chief. He continued to study Chinese and in 1805 he translated a work of Dr George Pearson into Chinese, followed, five years later, by an English translation of a significant part of the Chinese legal code.
In 1816 Staunton was second commissioner on a special mission to Beijing with Lord Amherst and Sir Henry Ellis. The embassy was unsuccessful and shortly after it departed back to Britain Staunton decided to leave China permanently. In England he bought the Leigh estate in 1820 and constructed a new home. Staunton was a founder member of the Royal Asiatic Society and donated many items to its Collections.
Major General George Le Grand Jacob (24 April 1805-1881) was an army officer in the East India Company. At the age of fifteen he began learning languages under Dr John Borthwick Gilchrist. He became fluent in Hindi, Persian, Marathi and Sanksrit. He was in the Grenadier Regiment Bombay Native Infantry and was promoted to Lieutenant in 1823 and to Major General in 1861. He is perhaps most known for suppressing the Indian Rebellion of 1857, involving a mutiny in the 27th Bombay Native Infantry. He was one of the earliest copiers of the Asoka Inscriptions. In addition to publishing many papers on Indian history, archaeology and topography, he wrote a book titled 'Western India before and during the Mutiny' which was published in 1871. He died in London on 27 January 1881 and was buried in Brockwood Cemetery in Surrey.
Frederic John Goldsmid was born in Milan on the 19th May 1818; during his early years living in France he was already considered a good linguist as he was proficient in Italian, French and English. He received his education from King's College School, Paris and partly at King's College School, London. In 1839 he entered the Madras Army, joining his regiment, the 37th Madras N.I. Preceding the treaty of Nankin, China, Goldsmid's regiment was ordered to proceed to China and take part in the actions at Canton after which Goldsmid was awarded the Chinese war medal. During his time in Canton, Goldsmid was also appointed as the Adjutant of his regiment which lead him to turn his attention to the study of Eastern languages, such as Persian, Arabic and Turkish in addition to Urdu, Sindhi and other Indian vernaculars. In 1845 he qualified as an interpreter in Hindustani.
Due to ill health Goldsmid returned to England. However in 1848 he travelled back to India and continued his studies in languages, passing the qualifying exams in 1849. He was appointed Interpreter for Persian and in 1851 for Arabic. It was during this year he took on the role of Assistant-Adjutant-General of the Nagpur Subsidiary. Through the influence of General John Jacob, Goldsmid entered civil employment and later went on to work as the Assistant Commissioner for Special Enquiry into 'the Settlement of Alienated Lands' in Sindh, India.
In 1855, after taking ill again, Goldsmid volunteered for active service in Crimea becoming the Assistant-Adjutant-General for the Turkish Contingent under General Vivian. During this time Goldsmid learnt Turkish, after which he was elected as the President for the Local Examining Committee at Kerch, Crimea. For his war efforts in Crimea he was honoured with the Turkish war medal, the order of the fourth class Medjidieh and the brevet rank of the Major in the Army.
In 1862 returning to India as Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel. Golsmid accompanied Colonel Patrick Stewart, as they were commissioned to establish overland telegraphic communication from Europe through Persia and Baluchistan to India. Following the death of Colonel Stewart, Goldsmid was appointed as the Director-General of the Indo-European Telegraph. After this post, Goldsmid was commissioned with the most difficult task of his career, in 1871, defining the boundary between Persia and Afghanistan for which he was honoured by Her Majesty's Government for his 'tact and good judgment under circumstances of no ordinary difficulty'.
After 35 years in service, Goldsmid retired from Government service but he was still considered indispensable and in 1880 he accepted the office of British Controller of the 'Daira Sanieh' (Crown lands) in Egypt. During his time in Egypt he was dispatched by Lord Granville on a mission to Constantinople. On his return to Alexandria, Goldsmid organised an Intelligence Department which resulted in the victory of Tel-el-Kebir. Leaving Egypt and travelling through the Congo, Goldsmid became severely ill and returned to London on the 31st December 1883.
However during the remaining years of his life he devoted his attention partly to literary work, newspapers reviews and works of reference like the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica'. His other literary achievements includes works such as, 'Telegraph and Travel' , 'Eastern Persia' , a paper on 'Preservation of National literature in the East' and the biography, 'Life of Outram' . He was an active member of the Royal Asiatic Society, serving on its Council, including acting as Vice-President from 1890-1905. On 12th January 1908, Goldsmid died and was buried at Hollingburne, Kent, where he once lived for many years.
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.
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 Edward Douglas Maclagan was a colonial administrator in India. Maclagan wrote widely about the Punjab area and in 1906 he was appointed Chief Secretary to the Government of the Punjab, becoming, in 1910, Secretary to the Revenue Department of the Indian Government and, from 1915 to 1918, Secretary to the Education Department. He became Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab in 1919 and Governor from 1921 to 1924. Concurrently from 1919-1924 he was Chancellor of University of the Punjab. He returned to England in 1924. From 1925 to 1928 and 1931 to 1934 he was President of the Royal Asiatic Society, and in 1930, its Director.
Sir Thomas Edward Colebrooke, known as Sir Edward Colebrooke, was the second son of Henry Thomas Colebrooke, founder of the RAS. Alongside leading a political career, he served as the President of the Society from 1864 to 1866, from 1875 to 1877 and in 1881.
Sir Charles Warre Malet entered the service of the East India Company at an early age. He filled various posts, including charge of a mission to the Mughal emperor and of the residency at Cambay from 1774 to 1785, where he formed views in favour of expanding British power in India. Malet also developed an unrivalled knowledge of Gujarat and western India more generally, and was dispatched by the government in Calcutta to persuade the Maratha leader Sindhia to accept the appointment of a company resident to the court of the peshwa at Poona, a post which he took up himself in November 1785. He considered western India an asset to improve British trade with China, and considered it important to have greater control over the rulers of western India. When Tipu Sultan attacked Travancore in 1789, Cornwallis made an alliance with the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Peshwa of Mahratta through Malet. This treaty was signed with difficulty, as Tipu also sought to forge alliances with the Peshwas. For his efforts Malet was created a baronet in February 1791. Malet retired to Britain in 1798 accompanied by Susanna (d. 1868), daughter of the portrait painter James Wales. The couple married on 17 September the following year and had eight sons. He died at Bath on 24 January 1815, when he was described as living at Wilbury House, Wiltshire.