Sir Robert Hamilton Lang, KCMG (1832-1913) was a Scottish-born financier, diplomat and collector of antiquities.

Early life and career

A son of the Rev. Gavin Lang, parish minister at Glassford, Lanarkshire, Robert Hamilton Lang was born in Glassford manse in 1832. His ten siblings included John Marshall Lang later

Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland The moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the minister or elder chosen to moderate (chair) the annual General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which is held for a week in Edinburgh every year. After chairing the Ass ...

. He received his schooling at the famous Hamilton Academy from which he entered the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

. Following graduation, Lang entered business and after a period posted in Beirut, was sent to Cyprus in 1861. In 1863 Lang was appointed manager of the Imperial Ottoman Bank in

Larnaca Larnaca, also spelled Larnaka, is a city on the southeast coast of Cyprus and the capital of the Larnaca District, district of the same name. With a district population of 155.000 in 2021, it is the third largest city in the country after Nicosi ...

During his time in Cyprus, Lang also served as Acting Vice-Consul of Cyprus and as full Consul from 1871 'till his departure for Cairo in 1872, to run the bank's operations there. In 1875 Lang was appointed a director of the Imperial Ottoman Bank at Constantinople. Lang was later appointed Director General of the Imperial Ottoman Bank, based in Constantinople, and was appointed a Knight Commander of the

Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince of Wales (the future King George IV), while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III ...

(KCMG) in 1886. He retired in October 1902, when he was received by the Sultan who conferred upon him the Grand Cordon of the Order of Medjidie set in brilliants. Following his resignation, he moved back to Britain and settled in

Dedham, Essex Dedham is a village in the City of Colchester district of Essex, England. It is near the River Stour, which is the border of Essex and Suffolk. The nearest town to Dedham is the small market town of Manningtree. Governance Dedham is part of t ...

Excavations and collections

During his time on Cyprus Lang began acquiring antiquities, this leading to his own excavations around the villages of Dhali, in particular the site of ancient

Idalion Idalion or Idalium (, ''Idalion'', Phoenician: 𐤀𐤃𐤉𐤋, , Akkadian: ''e-di-ʾi-il'', Edīl) was an ancient city in Cyprus, in modern Dali, Nicosia District. The city was founded on the copper trade in the 3rd millennium BC. Its name d ...

, and Pyla. In 1870 Lang loaned a collection of his Cypriot antiquities to the Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow (subsequently donating this collection to the new Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in 1903) and in 1872, the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

purchased a major part of his remaining collection, with other parts going to the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

in Paris and to museums in Berlin. Lang wrote an account of his excavations at the Idalion site, this published in the Transactions of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

(second series, volume 11, 1878), and a further account of his archaeological excavations in Cyprus in

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine ''Blackwood's Magazine'' was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by publisher William Blackwood and originally called the ''Edinburgh Monthly Magazine'', but quickly relaunched as ''Blackwood's Edinbu ...

(1905.) (Lang also wrote the book ''Cyprus: its history, its present resources, and future prospects'' (Macmillan & Co., 1878) based on his evaluation of the economic potential of the island.)

Later life and ecclesiastical family

Apart from his father having been a Church of Scotland minister, Robert Hamilton Lang's younger brother, the Very Rev Dr John Marshall Lang (1834-1909) was a Church of Scotland minister, a Moderator of its General Assembly (1893–94) and Principal of the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; ) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bis ...

(1900-09.) Robert Hamilton Lang's nephew (third son of son of John Marshall Lang),

Cosmo Gordon Lang William Cosmo Gordon Lang, 1st Baron Lang of Lambeth, (31 October 1864 – 5 December 1945) was a Scottish Anglican prelate who served as Archbishop of York (1908–1928) and Archbishop of Canterbury (1928–1942). His elevation to Archbishop ...

was to become

Archbishop of York The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers the ...

(1909-1928) and latterly,

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

from 1928 to 1942. Another nephew (the Very Rev. Marshall Buchanan Lang, fifth son of John Marshall Lang) was to be appointed

, 1935–36. Ill health precluded his attendance at the marriage of his second daughter (Mary Alice Lang) in New York in 1911 and he died at Hampstead, London, in 1913.
New York Times 15 June 1911. Retrieved 6 April 2011

Publications

On coins discovered during recent excavations in the island of Cyprus
The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Numismatic Society New Series, Vol. 11 (1871), 1-18. *'' iarchive:cyprusitshistor00langgoog, Cyprus: its history, its present resources, and future prospects.'' Macmillan. 1878. * Narrative of Excavations in a Temple at Dali (Idalium) in Cyprus. ''Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature,'' 2nd ser. 11, 30–71. 1878. * Colonial and Indian Exhibition 1886. Handbook to Cyprus (with map of island) and catalogue of the exhibits, London. 1886. * Report (with three woodcuts) upon the results of the Cyprus representation at the Colonial & Indian Exhibition of 1886. London. 1886 *
On Archaic Survivals in Cyprus
The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 16 (1887), 186–188. * Reminiscences - archaeological research in Cyprus. ''Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine,'' 177:1075, 622–639. 1905.

Collections

Cypriot collection in the British Museum

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lang, Robert Hamilton 1832 births 1913 deaths People educated at Hamilton Academy Alumni of the University of Glasgow Scottish knights Scottish bankers British expatriates in the Ottoman Empire 19th-century Scottish people 20th-century Scottish businesspeople 19th-century Scottish businesspeople