Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet
President of the Royal Geographical Society | |
|---|---|
| In office 1871–1873; 1874–1876 | |
| Preceded by | Sir Roderick Murchison |
| Succeeded by | Sir Henry Frere |
| Member of Parliament for Frome | |
| In office 1865–1868 | |
| Preceded by | Lord Edward Thynne |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Hughes |
| Member of Parliament for Reigate | |
| In office February – October 1858 | |
| Preceded by | William Hackblock |
| Succeeded by | William Monson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Henry Creswicke Rawlinson 5 April 1810 British East India Company |
| Awards |
|
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Branch | Major-general |
| Wars | First Anglo-Afghan War |
Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, 1st Baronet,
Early life and army service
Rawlinson was born on 5 April 1810 at the place now known as Chadlington, Oxfordshire, England.[1] He was the second son of Abram Tyack Rawlinson and elder brother of the historian George Rawlinson. In 1827, having become proficient in the Farsi, he was sent to Persia in company with other British officers to drill and reorganize the Shah's troops. Disagreements between the Persian court and the British government, also involving Russia, ended in the departure of the British officers.
Rawlinson began to study Persian inscriptions, more particularly those in the
Political career
Rawlinson was appointed political agent at Kandahar in 1840, serving for three years. In 1844, for his service to the British Empire in the course of the Afghan War, he was made Companion of the Order of the Bath.[3]
A chance encounter with the governor-general resulted in his appointment as political agent in
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in February 1850, praised as "The Discoverer of the key to the Ancient Persian, Babylonian, and Assyrian Inscriptions in the Cuneiform character. The Author of various papers on the philology, antiquities, and Geography of Mesopotamia and Central Asia. Eminent as a Scholar".[5]
Remaining at home for two years, in 1851 he published his memoir on the Behistun inscription and was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. The
An equestrian accident in 1855 hastened his determination to return to England, and in that year, he resigned his post in the East India Company.[6] Prior to his return, Rawlinson was involved in the ill-fated French mission to ship over 200 cases of antiquities to Europe, which were mostly lost at Al-Qurnah.[8][9]
On his return to England, he received the distinction of
The remaining forty years of his life were full of activity (political, diplomatic and scientific) and were spent mainly in London. From February to September 1858, he sat as
Attitudes concerning Russia
Rawlinson was one of the most important figures arguing that Britain must
Later life
He was a trustee of the British Museum from 1876 to his death. He was created
He married Louisa Caroline Harcourt Seymour, daughter of Jane (née Hopkinson) and Henry Seymour, on 2 September 1862, with whom he had two sons: Henry and Alfred. He was widowed on 31 October 1889 and died in London of influenza five years later. He is buried in Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey.
Published works
Rawlinson's published works include four volumes of cuneiform inscriptions, published under his direction between 1870 and 1884 by the trustees of the British Museum; The Persian Cuneiform Inscription at Behistun (1846–1851) and Outline of the History of Assyria (1852), both reprinted from the Asiatic Society's journals; A Commentary on the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Babylon and Assyria (1850); Notes on the Early History of Babylonia (1854); and England and Russia in the East (1875). He also made a variety of minor contributions to the publications of learned societies. He contributed articles on Baghdad, the Euphrates and Kurdistan to the ninth edition of the
Works
- Rawlinson, H. C. (1848). "The Persian Cuneiform Inscription at Behistun, Decyphered and Translated; With a Memoir on Persian Cuneiform Inscriptions in General, and on That of Behistun in Particular". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 10: i–349. JSTOR 25581217.
References
- JSTOR 1773861.
- ISBN 978-0-06-231610-3.
- ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 928.
- ^ Chisholm 1911, pp. 928–929.
- ^ "Library and Archive Catalogue". The Royal Society. Retrieved 4 October 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f Chisholm 1911, p. 929.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-58243-028-7.
- ^ Namio Egami, "The Report of The Japan Mission For The Survey of Under-Water Antiquities At Qurnah: The First Season," (1971-72), 1-45, also see footnote 6 and 7, https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/orient1960/8/0/8_0_1/_pdf.
Sources
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Rawlinson, Sir Henry Creswicke". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 928–929.
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Sir Henry Rawlinson
- Adkins, Lesley (2003). Empires of the Plain: Henry Rawlinson and the Lost Languages of Babylon. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-712899-0.
- Rawlinson, George (1898). A Memoir of Major-General Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson. London: Longmans, Green and Co – via Internet Archive.
External links
Media related to Henry Rawlinson (Sir), 1st Baronet at Wikimedia Commons
Further reading
- Adkins, Lesley (2003). Empires of the Plain: Henry Rawlinson and the Lost Languages of Babylon. ISBN 9781466838383.
- Rawlinson, Henry (1841). The Persian Cuneiform Inscription at Behistun, Deciphered... Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Vol. 10. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. pp. 400+ – via Internet Archive.
