Sandford Arthur Strong

Sandford Arthur Strong
Sandford Arthur Strong, 1897 photograph
Born	(1863-04-10)10 April 1863 London
Died	18 January 1904(1904-01-18) (aged 40)
Nationality	British
Education	King's College, London.
Alma mater	St John's College, Cambridge.
Occupation	Librarian

Sandford Arthur Strong (1863–1904) was an English orientalist, art historian and librarian.

Born in London on 10 April 1863, he was the second son of Thomas Strong of the War Office, and his wife Anna Lawson; his elder brother was Thomas Banks Strong. In 1877 he entered St Paul's School, London as a foundation scholar, but remained there for little more than a year. His next two years were passed as a clerk at Lloyd's, though during this time he also attended classes at King's College, London. As a boy he had been taught drawing by Albert Varley, who gave him a copy of Matthew Pilkington's Dictionary of Painters, and he frequented the National Gallery. In 1881 he matriculated with a Hutchinson studentship at St John's College, Cambridge. He graduated in 1884, with a third class in Part I of the classical tripos, being placed in the second class in Part II the following year. He proceeded M.A. in 1890.

On the recommendation of Edward Byles Cowell, Strong worked on Sanskrit with Cecil Bendall, but discouraged at Cambridge, he moved to Oxford towards the end of 1885. There he was subkeeper and librarian of the Indian Institute, and befriended Max Müller, Archibald Henry Sayce, and Adolf Neubauer. Neubauer advised him to visit the continent, and gave him letters of introduction to Ernest Renan and James Darmesteter at Paris; he also studied with Eberhard Schrader in Berlin. Strong on his return to England found recognition and employment slow in coming, and he failed in his candidature for the chair of Arabic at Cambridge vacant by the death of Robertson Smith in 1894. He was appointed in 1895 professor of Arabic at University College, London, an almost nominal post. At this period he taught Persian to Gertrude Bell.