Sir Robert KennawaySir Robert Kennaway Douglas
Vice-President
of Royal Asiatic Society, and the first Keeper of the British
Museum's new Department of Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts
when it was created in 1892, Robert Kennaway Douglas was born at
Larkbeare House, Tallaton, on August 23, 1838. He was the fourth son
of the Rev. Philip W. Douglas, who was appointed to the Chapel of
Ease at Escot, Ottery St.Mary, Devon, by the late Sir John Kennawny,
Bart., and his grand-father was Dr. Philip Douglas, Master of Corpus
Christi College, Cambridge.
Douglas was delicate in his
child-hood, and spent the first few years of his life at Larkbeare,
receiving the rudiments of his education, in company with his three
brothers and the present Sir John Kennaway, from a tutor who lived
in the village. When he was 10, his father moved to Bath, and
Douglas was sent, first to a school in Park Street, and afterwards
to Blandford Grammar School.
At the age of 17 he went with
an elder brother to New Zealand, where be proposed to devote himself
to sheep-farming, but after two yeurs spent in the Middle Island he
returned to England and matriculated at King's College, London,
where he studied Chinese under the late Dr, Summer. At the nge of 20
he passed first of the candidates for the Chinese Consular Service,
went out to China in 18S8, and was appointed on June 7th of that
year student interpreter in the Superintendency in Hong Kong.
Barely another year had passed when he was moved to Canton which had
been under the control of allied forces since its capture in
December 1857. It was here that he acquired the greater part of his
knowledge of Chinese life and of the southern dialects. In March
1861, he was transferred to Peking as Third Assistant in the
Consular Service. In June 1862, Douglas became First Assistant in
the Consulate at Tientsin and worked under General Staveley, who
commanded the British Occupation Force there. In October of the same
year, he was appointed Vice-Consul at Taku. Here he remained until
1864 when he returned home on leave, never, in fact, to go back to
China.bsp;
He was the first Keeper of the British Museum's new Department of
Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts when it was created in 1892.
The study of Chinese language and literature had till then been
confined almost entirely to missionaries. At the British Museum the
Chinese books and manuscripts were dispersed throughout the King's
and Grenville Libraries without any attempt at systematic
management. Douglas, who had married the year after his appointment,
at once set himself to work organizing the existing collection and
making additions to it. As regards the latter task, the knowledge of
native dealers which he had acquired during his stay in China gave
him unique opportunities. By the time he produced the Catalogue of
Chinese Printed Books., Manuscripts and Drawings tn the British
Museum in 1877, he had been made Senior Assistant. The same year saw
the publication by him of two popular works. The Chinese Life of
Jenghiz Khan (a translation from the Chinese) and Confucianism and
Taoism.
Until the publication in 1993 of Kenneth Gardner's Descriptive
Catalogue of Japanese Books in the British Lthrary Printed before
1700, Douglas's catalogue was the only guide to the British
Library's antiquarian Japanese collection. Its Chinese counterpart,
however, has not yet been superseded in print to this day. Douglas
thus became something of a household name among Orientalists,
especially scholars of Japanese literature and of sinology.
During his years at the Museum he lived at Dulwich and was a
governor of Dulwich College. He retired in 1907 to the west of
England. Failing to find suitable accommodation near his birthplace
at Ottery St Mary, to which by coincidence Sir Ernest Satow (a
British diplomat and doyen of Japanese historical bibliographers)
had retired, he finally settled in Acton Turville where he was to
remain until his death in 1913. He left a wife, six sons and two
daughters.
Douglas was in the Consular Service of China 1858-65 ; Assistant in
charge of the Chinese Library at the British Museum 1865-92; Keeper
of the
Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts at the British
Museum 1892-1907 ; sometime Professor of Chinese at King's Coll.,
London, and a Fellow thereof 1903-13, and who was cr. Knt. 1903 and
d. im.—Belcotnle Lodge, Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire.
He
married in 1866 Rachel, daughter of the late Kirkby Fenton, Esq., of
Caldecote Hall, Warwickshire. Four of his seven sons were
cricketers,
Archibald Philip,
Sholto,
James and
Robert. A 5th son,
Stuart, played
for Dulwich College.
His sixth son, Stuart Monro, was wounded
serving with 8th Batt., Royal Fusiliers in 1917. He was Indian
Educational Service Inspector of Schools, Burma, 1902-6, and Head
Master, Lutterworth Grammar School, 1911-30.
His seventh and youngest son,
Philip, became a Royal Navy Captain.
There was
apparently much more to the dour looking Douglas than appears in the
only known photograph of him (
1).
He died at Acton Turville,
Chippenham, on 20th May 1913.
Notes:
1.
I have since found another photograph - but he still looks severe!
Sources
Sources for this article include:
• "Douglas, Sir Robert Kennaway, (23 Aug. 1838–20 May 1913),
Professor of Chinese, King's College London (Fellow, 1903–08)".
WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U185486.
ISBN 978-0-19-954089-1.
• Hart, Robert; Campbell, James Duncan
(1975). The I. G. in Peking: Letters of Robert Hart, Chinese
Maritime Customs, 1868-1907. Harvard University Press. pp. 804 note.
ISBN 9780674443204.
• "Electronic British Library Journal".
British Library. Missing or empty |url= (help)
Douglas, Sir
Robert Kennaway (1875). The Language and Literature of China: Two
Lectures Delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in May
and June, 1875. Trübner & Company.
• Mitchell, Sally. "Meade,
Elizabeth Thomasina". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/52740.
• "Douglas, Robert Noel (DGLS889RN)". A Cambridge Alumni
Database. University of Cambridge.
• "Douglas, James (DGLS893J)".
A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
• "Douglas,
Stuart Monro (DGLS898SM)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University
of Cambridge.
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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