Frederick William Thomas (21 March 1867 – 6 May 1956), usually cited as F. W. Thomas, was an English Indologist and Tibetologist.

Life

Thomas was born on 21 March 1867 in

Tamworth, Staffordshire Tamworth (, ) is a market town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Staffordshire, England, north-east of Birmingham. The town borders North Warwickshire to the east and south, Lichfield District, Lichfield to the north, south- ...

. After schooling at

King Edward's School, Birmingham King Edward's School (KES) is an independent school (UK), independent day school for boys in the British Public school (UK), public school tradition, located in Edgbaston, Birmingham. Founded by Edward VI of England, King Edward VI in 1552, it ...

, he went up to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

in 1885, graduating with a first class degree in both

classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

and Indian languages and being awarded a

Browne medal The Browne Medals (also known as the Sir William Browne's Medals)
''Cambridge University Reporter'', 7 November 2008

in both 1888 and 1889. At Cambridge he studied Sanskrit under the influential Orientalist

Edward Byles Cowell Edward Byles Cowell, (23 January 1826 – 9 February 1903) was a noted translator of Persian poetry and the first professor of Sanskrit at Cambridge University. Early life Cowell was born in Ipswich, the son of Charles Cowell and Marianne Byle ...

. He was a librarian at the India Office Library (now subsumed into the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

) between 1898 and 1927. Simultaneously he was lecturer in

comparative philology Comparative linguistics is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness. Genetic relatedness implies a common origin or proto-language and comparative linguistics aim ...

University College, London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

from 1908 to 1935, Reader in Tibetan at London University from 1909 to 1937 and the

Boden Professor of Sanskrit The position of Boden Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford was established in 1832 with money bequeathed to the university by Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Boden, a retired soldier in the service of the East India Company. He wished th ...

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

between 1927 and 1937, in which capacity he became a

fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

Balliol College Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and ar ...

. His students at Oxford included

Harold Walter Bailey Sir Harold Walter Bailey, (16 December 1899 – 11 January 1996), who published as H. W. Bailey, was an English scholar of Khotanese, Sanskrit, and the comparative study of Iranian languages. Life Bailey was born in Devizes, Wiltshire, and ...

. Thomas became a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

in 1927. He died on 6 May 1956.British Academy Fellowship record
Accessed 30 September 2015

Work

Thomas collaborated with

Jacques Bacot Jacques Bacot (4 July 1877 – 18 June 1965) was an explorer and pioneering French Tibetologist. He travelled extensively in India, western China, and the Tibetan border regions. He worked at the École pratique des hautes études. Bacot was ...

in publishing a collection of Old Tibetan historical texts. In addition he studied many Old Tibetan texts himself which were collected in his four-volume ''Tibetan literary texts and documents concerning Chinese Turkestan'' and ''Ancient folk-literature from North-Eastern Tibet''. He also published a monograph on the

Nam language Nam is an unclassified extinct language preserved in Tibetan transcriptions in a number of Dunhuang manuscript fragments. The manuscript fragments are held at the British Library and the . Classification According to Ikeda Takumi, the research ...

, and wrote an unpublished work on the

Zhangzhung language Zhangzhung () is an extinct Sino-Tibetan language that was spoken in Zhangzhung in what is now western Tibet. It is attested in a bilingual text called ''A Cavern of Treasures'' (''mDzod phug'') and several shorter texts. A small number of doc ...

. His catalogues of the Tibetan manuscripts from Central Asia brought to the India Office Library by

Marc Aurel Stein Sir Marc Aurel Stein, (; 26 November 1862 – 26 October 1943) was a Hungarian-born British archaeologist, primarily known for his explorations and archaeological discoveries in Central Asia. He was also a professor at Indian universities. ...

remained unpublished until 2007, when his catalogue of Tibetan manuscripts from Stein's third expedition was published on the website of the

International Dunhuang Project The International Dunhuang Project (IDP) is an international collaborative effort to conserve, catalogue and Digital preservation, digitise manuscripts, printed texts, paintings, textiles and artefacts from the Mogao caves at the Western Chinese c ...

Publications

*(1897) (with E.B. Cowell) ''The Harsa-carita of Bana.'' London: Royal Asiatic Society. *(1903) ''Catalogue of Sanskrit MSS.'' *(1929) (with

Sten Konow image:StenKonow.jpg, Sten Konow Sten Konow (17 April 1867 – 29 June 1948) was a Norwegian Indologist. He was a professor of Indian philology at the University of Oslo, Christiania University, Oslo, from 1910, until moving to Hamburg Universi ...

) ''Two medieval documents from Tun-Huang.'' Oslo, A.W. Brøggers boktrykkeri. *(1933) ''Arthur Anthony Macdonell, 1854-1930.'' London: Milford. *(1935-1963) ''Tibetan literary texts and documents concerning Chinese Turkestan.'' vols.London: Royal Asiatic Society. *(1940-1946) (with Jacques Bacot and Gustave-Charles Toussaint) ''Documents de Touen-houang relatifs à l'histoire du Tibet.'' Paris: Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner. *(1948) '' Nam, an ancient language of the Sino-Tibetan borderland''. London, Oxford Univ. Press. *(1957) ''Ancient folk-literature from North-Eastern Tibet.'' Berlin: Akademie-Verlag. *(2007) ''Stein Tibetan: Third Expedition'
http://idp.bl.uk/database/oo_cat.a4d?shortref=Thomas_2007

References

External links

*
Obituary
''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, F.W. Tibetologists English orientalists 1867 births 1956 deaths Fellows of Balliol College, Oxford Boden Professors of Sanskrit People educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Academics of University College London Fellows of the British Academy People from Tamworth, Staffordshire Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire