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Sir Henry Rawlinson

Sir Henry Rawlinson, Bt
GCB FRS
Henry Creswicke Rawlinson.jpg
President of the Royal Geographical Society
In office
1874–1875
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 1858 – October 1858
Preceded by William Hackblock
Succeeded by William Monson
Personal details
Born Henry Creswicke Rawlinson
(1810-04-05)5 April 1810
Chadlington, Oxfordshire, England
Died 5 March 1895(1895-03-05) (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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