Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet
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Sir Henry Rawlinson, Bt GCB FRS |
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| President of the Royal Geographical Society | |
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In office 1874–1875 |
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| Member of Parliament for Frome | |
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In office 1865 – 1868 |
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| Preceded by | Lord Edward Thynne |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Hughes |
| Member of Parliament for Reigate | |
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In office February 1858 – October 1858 |
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| Preceded by | William Hackblock |
| Succeeded by | William Monson |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Henry Creswicke Rawlinson 5 April 1810 Chadlington, Oxfordshire, England |
| Died | 5 March 1895 (aged 84) London, England |
| Political party | Liberal Party |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service/branch | British Army |
| Rank | Major-General |
| Battles/wars | First Anglo-Afghan War |
Major-General Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, 1st Baronet, GCB, FRS (5 April 1810 – 5 March 1895) was a British East India Company army officer, politician and Orientalist, sometimes described as the Father of Assyriology. Rawlinson was one of the most important figures arguing that Britain must check Russian ambitions in South Asia. He was a strong advocate of the forward policy in Afghanistan, and counselled the retention of Kandahar. He argued that Tsarist Russia would attack and absorb Khokand, Bokhara and Khiva (which they did) and warned they would invade Persia (present-day Iran) and Afghanistan as springboards to British India.
Rawlinson was born on 5 April 1810 at the place now known as Chadlington, Oxfordshire, England. He was the second son of Abram Tyack Rawlinson, and elder brother of the historian George Rawlinson.
In 1827, having become proficient in the Persian language, 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 ended in the departure of the British officers.
Rawlinson began to study Persian inscriptions, more particularly those in the hitherto undeciphered cuneiform character. He was in the vicinity of the great cuneiform inscription at Behistun, near the city of Kermanshah in western Iran, for two years. He began to transcribe the Old Persian portion of the trilingual inscriptions in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian (a later form of Akkadian) written by Darius the Great sometime between his coronation as king of the Persian Empire in the summer of 522 BC and his death in autumn of 486 BC.
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