David Lockhart Robertson Lorimer was born on 24 December 1876. He entered the Indian Army in 1896. From 1898-1903 he served with the Q.V.O. Corps of Guides, and was seconded with the Khalibar Rifles from 1901-1903. He entered the Indian Political Service in 1903, serving with them until 1924. His posts included H.B.M.S. Vice-Consul for Arabistan (1903-1909); Political Agent, Bahrein (1911-1912); H.M. Consul, Kerman and Persian Baluchistan, and ex-officio Assistant to the Political Resident, Persian Gulf (1912-1914); Assistant Political Agent, Chitral (1915); on field service with the I.E.F.D., Mesopotamia, and Civil Governor Am'ra (1915-1916); H.M. Consul Kerman and Persian Baluchistan (1916-1917); Political Agent, Loralai, Baluchistan (1920), and Political Agent, Gilgit (1920-1924). Lorimer was awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship, 1933-1935. He also received an honorary fellowship of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in 1953.
Lorimer's publications included Syntax of Colloquial Pashtu (1915); Persian Tales (1919); The Phonology of the Bakhtiari, Badakshani, and Madaglashti Dialects of Modern Persian (1922); The Burushaski Language , Volumes I and II (1935), and Volume III (1938); The Dum'ki Language (1939), and The Wakhi Language (1958). He died in 1962.
Emily Overend Lorimer (1881-1949) was a British linguist, political analyst and author, She was a tutor in Germanic Philology at Somerville College Oxford ,1907-10, and editor of 'Basrah Times' 1916-17. She was with her husband, David Lockhart Robertson Lorimer, British resident in Cairo during the First World War and its Arab Revolt. She was an early translator and analyst of Nazi works, including Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf in the 1920s and 1930s. She worked with her husband on Asian studies.
Cecil John Edmonds was born in Japan but educated at Bedford School and Christ's Hospital before going on to Pembroke College, Cambridge, subsequently passing into the Levant Consular Service. He served under Sir Percy Cox for ten years in the Persian Gulf during which time he captured the German cipher book in 1915 which enabled the deciphering of the Zimmermann telegram. He joined the Iraq administration in 1925 succeeding Sir Kinahan Cornwallis as Adviser to the Ministry in 1935. During his time in the Middle East he travelled extensively. He worked in the Foreign Office from 1945-1951 before joining the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) for 6 years as lecturer in Kurdish, the first time the language had been taught in England.