Subseries RAS BHA/1/2 - Letter from J.E. Barwis-Holliday to Professor C.F. Beckingham proposing the Barwis-Holliday Award

Major J.E. Barwis-Holliday was interested in the Far East. He was the British delegate at the eighth congress of the International Organisation for the Industrial, Scientific and Cultural Advancement in Japan. He owned properties in Sussex and Cumberland. He was a member to the Royal Asiatic Society from 1970 until his death in 1983 and served on the Society's Council. He endowed the Barwis-Holliday Award while he was alive with further money bequeathed on his death.

The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland was founded by the eminent Sanskrit scholar Sir Henry Thomas Colebrooke on the 15th March 1823. It received its Royal Charter from King George IV on the 11th August 1824 'for the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia'. It continues as a forum for those who are interested in the languages, cultures and history of Asia to meet and exchange ideas.