Christopher Hanby Baillie Reynolds (29 July 19223 April 2015) was the first British academic to study the

Maldivian language Maldivian, also known by its endonym Dhivehi or Divehi ( ; '' dv, links=no, ދިވެހި'', ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the South Asian island country of Maldives and on Minicoy Island, Lakshadweep, union territory of India. The ...

. He wrote the first ''English-Maldivian dictionary'': this complied with the Maldive Government's 1970's then Roman-

transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...

scheme. The material was available to academics from the 1970s, and finally published in 432 pages with 5000 individual entries in 2003. The dictionary complemented his 1993 150-page ''Maldives ( World Bibliographical Series number 158)'' book. During his career as a Sinhalese lecturer at the

School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury are ...

in London he taught and extensively researched the

Sinhalese language Sinhala ( ; , ''siṁhala'', ), sometimes called Sinhalese (), is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka, who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. Sinhala is also s ...

and its pre-1815 literature: the Sri Lankan government awarded him the Sri Lanka Ranajana medal for this.

Education interrupted by war service

Christopher Hanby Baillie Reynolds was born 29 July 1922 in

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

; his father was the registrar of the

Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy Clergy Support Trust is a charity which was formerly (between 2012 and 2019) known as Sons & Friends of the Clergy. The full official name of the charity is Governors of the Charity for Relief of the Poor Widows and Children of Clergymen. The pres ...

. Christopher's school education was at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...

. His Honour Mods studies including

Modern Languages A modern language is any human language that is currently in use. The term is used in language education to distinguish between languages which are used for day-to-day communication (such as French and German) and dead classical languages such ...

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at ...

were interrupted in 1942 by

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

war service in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, taking him after the war (but still in the army) to

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

(then Ceylon) where he was fascinated by the Sinhalese language, script and culture. After the war, with a Forlong scholarship, he gained a BA degree in Sinhalese at SOAS.

SOAS career

After graduating at SOAS, he was promptly appointed to a Sinhalese lectureship there. For some of his overseas research leave in Sri Lanka, he studied with Buddhist monks. When in the Maldives, then hardly ever visited by foreigners, he studied the Maldivian language, which is related to Sinhalese. His ''English-Maldivian dictionary; Bilingual edition'' was published by Routledge on 17 April 2003, . His Sinhalese language publications included: * ''Linguistic studies of early Sinhalese'' in the ''Bulletin of the British Association of Orientalists''. * The 377-page ''An anthology of Sinhalese literature up to 1815'', selected by the UNESCO National Commission of Ceylon * ''Sinhalese: An introductory course'', SOAS, 1981, 1995 For over 10 years he was employed to monitor the BBC’s Sinhalese programs.

Family

He married Jane Batten in Hampstead Parish Church,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in July 1952 and lived in Westerham,

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

from 1957. They sang in the

Bach Choir The Bach Choir is a large independent musical organisation founded in London, England in 1876 to give the first performance of J. S. Bach's '' Mass in B minor'' in Britain. The choir has around 240 active members. Directed by David Hill MBE (Ya ...

in London from about 1942 and were keen musicians. Many holidays were spent camping in Welcome valley close to the north-coast border of

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

and

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a Historic counties of England, historic county and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people ...

. They had four children: Tristram, Ben, Lucy and David. Christopher died on 3 April 2015, aged 92: he and Jane (who died on 1 May 2008) share a grave near the north boundary of Westerham Church churchyard.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reynolds, Christopher Linguists from England 1922 births 2015 deaths British Army personnel of World War II Alumni of New College, Oxford British expatriates in Italy British expatriates in Sri Lanka