Horace Hayman Wilson (1786-1860) was an English orientalist who studied medicine at St Thomas' Hospital, London, before travelling to India in 1808 to become an assistant surgeon for the East India Company in Bengal. Whilst in Calcutta he devoted his attention to the study of Indian languages, especially Sanskrit, and in 1811 became the Secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, upon the recommendation of Henry Colebrooke. In 1832, Wilson left India as he was appointed the first Professorship in Sanskrit at Oxford University. Four years later he became Librarian at East India House and he fulfilled both positions for many years. Wilson wrote extensively on the subjects of Sanskrit literature, Hindu religion, and Indian history. He became Director of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1837 following Colebrooke's death, and remained in position until his own death in 1860.
Captain Turner Macan (1792-1836) of Carriff, Co. Armagh, was Persian Interpreter to the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in India. His edition of the Shahnameh was the first ever printed in Europe. The text was prepared from seventeen complete manuscripts and four fragments, most of which were written in Persia, lent to Macan by various British army officers and civil servants as well as local nawabs. One of these manuscripts (Rylands Persian MS 932, University of Manchester) was presented to the translator by Nasir-ud-Din Haidar, the King of Oudh.
Richard Macan was with Turner Macan when he died in Calcutta in 1836 and took charge of his affairs.
Hisamuddin Alam Shah was educated at Malay College, Kuala Kangsor. He became the sixth Sultan of Selangor, on 4 April 1938, four days after the death of his father. On 26 January 1939 he was crowned at Istana Mahkota Puri in Klang. In January 1942, Col. Fujiyama, the Japanese Military Governor of Selangor, invited Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah to King's House in Kuala Lumpur. He was told to surrender the regalia to his older brother, and the Japanese proclaimed Tengku Musa Eddin as the new Sultan. Hisamuddin Alam Shah declined to work with the Japanese and from 1943, refused their allowance awarded to him and his children. He returned to the throne in 1945, and in 1957, was elected Deputy Yang di-Pertuan Agong of independent Malaya. He was elected the second Yang di-Pertuan Agong in 1960 and in July declared the end of the state of emergency in Malaya. He died on 1 September 1960, the day fixed for his official installation.
Petrus Voorhoeve was born in December 1899 in Vlissengen. In 1919 he became a student at the University of Leiden, first studying theology before switching to Indonesian languages continuing his studies to complete a PhD in Batak Folk Tales. In 1927 he was appointed government linguist at Balai Pushtaka, the Bureau of Popular Literature in Jakarta. He was granted leave in 1933 but on his return in 1934 he became a librarian at the Royal Batavia Society of Arts and Science. In 1937 he became linguist in the service of the Self-governing Districts of North Sumatra charged with creating a Simalungen dictionary. He was interned by the Japanese Army in 1942 and separated from his wife and children until after the War when, in 1946, they returned to the Netherlands. Voorhoeve then took up an appointment at the University Library in Leiden but returned to Indonesia in 1947 to complete his 20 years of service necessary for a full pension. He worked for the Institute of Linguistic and Cultural Research before returning to Leiden in 1949 to take up his position again of Curator. He catalogued many Malay manuscripts working at institutions around the world. He died in 1996.