The Syro-Egyptian Society was founded on Tuesday 3 December 1844, the inaugural meeting taking place at the Society's Rooms, No. 71 Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square, London. Dr. John Lee was in the Chair and the meeting was attended by a 'very numerous company of Ladies and Gentlemen distinguished by their rank in Society, and by their attainments; including various celebrated Authors and Oriental Travellers...'. The Society was founded 'to bring together those who had travelled in, and directed their attention to the Antiquities and general History of Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor'. It seems that a Council had already been formed before this meeting to oversee the Society whose originator was Dr. W. Holt Yates.
Professor E.H.S. Simmonds was born in 1919 at Littlehampton, Sussex. He was educated at Lord Weymouth's school, Warminster. He was enrolled into a course that sponsored by the Institute of Bankers in 1937 because his father want him to be a distributor of agricultural machinery and farming supplies. But Simmonds enlisted in the ranks of the Royal House Artillery and was commissioned in 1940. He was involved in the Malayan Campaign and the surrender of Singapore. He spend four years as a prisoner of war in Singapore and Thai camps. After returning to England, he went to Keble College Oxford in 1946 to study English Language and Literature. However Simmonds continued to be interested in the Thai people and their culture, thus, leading to him teaching linguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, from 1948. He remained at SOAS until his retirement in 1982 from the position of Professor of the Languages and Literatures of South East Asia.
Simmonds played also a major role in the Royal Asiatic Society. He became a Fellow in 1954 and served as Director (1965-68), Vice-President (1968-72 & 1976-80) and President (1973-76). He was married to Patricia Simmonds, actress and artist. He died in 1994.
Thomas Hardwicke joined the British East India Company army with the Bengal Artillery in November 1778. He was posted in southern India from 1781 to 1785. He was wounded at Satyamangalam on 13 September 1790 and was posted as a Company Orderly at Bangalore, before moving to Bengal in 1793 to become Adjutant and Quartermaster of Artillery. Hardwicke rose to become Major-General in 1819. He resigned from the command of the Bengal Artillery in 1823 to return to England and died at The Lodge, Lambeth, on 3 March 1835.
During his military career in India, Hardwicke travelled extensively over the subcontinent. He collected zoological specimens and amassed a large collection of paintings of animals which he employed local artists to make. The Indian artists employed by Hardwicke are unknown, except for one, Goordial, but they were trained and their style was adapted to the demands of technical illustration using watercolours. The collection was bequeathed to the British Museum in 1835 which was later partly moved to the Natural History Museum. The collection consists of 4500 illustrations.
Hardwicke was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1813 and Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1804. He also held positions of Vice-President to the Asiatic Society of Bengal and was an honorary member of the Royal Dublin Society. Hardwicke was not married but had three illegitimate daughters and two sons apart from two daughters born to an Indian mistress (named as Fyzbuhsh in his Will).