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(C) OBITUARY NOTICES
SIR RALPH LILLEY TURNER
b. 5-10-18881
[ d. 22-4-1983
Sir Ralph Lilley Turner, Honorary Member of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (1948) passed away on April 22, 1983. He was 94.
Sir Ralph Turner was born on October 5, 1888. Educated in the Perse Grammar School and Christ's College, Cambridge, Sir Ralph joined the Indian Educational Service and in 1913 was appointed Lecturer of Sanskrit at Queen's College in Benares. In the very following year (1914) he was invited by the University of Bombay to deliver the Wilson Philological Lectu res. Soon afterwards the First World War broke out and Sir Ralph served for four years (1915-1919) in the Queen Alexandra's Third Gurkha Rifles. For Sir Ralph this did not mean a complete break in his academic career for it was during this period that he learned the language of his comrades-in-arms and collected materials for his first major achievement the famous Nepali Dictionary.
After the war Sir Ralph found himself again at Benares, this time as Professor of Linguistics at the Benares Hindu University. Two years later the scene of his academic activities shifted from India to the United Kingdom. In 1922 he was called to be the first full-time Professor of Sanskrit at the School of Oriental (and, since 1938, African) Studies, University of London. Later, in 1937 he became the School's Director. He held this post till his retirement from the School in 1957. The great expansion of the School under his Directorship was the result of Sir Ralph's far-sightedness and the untiring efforts with which he pursued his objectives. The littleknown story of the battle on the home-front which Sir Ralph fought against the "official apathy or lack of fore-sight" is vividly narrated by J. C. Wright and C. D. Cowan in their obituary published in the BSOAS 47 (1984), 540-548.
Sir Ralph's research career in which he handled a number of problems
Jain Education International
1 In a letter dated 20-12-1985 Miss Diana Matias, Editorial Secretary, BSOAS, informs me that Prof. Turner was invited a second time in 1922 to deliver Wilson Philological Lectures, but he could not deliver them because he was that year appointed to the Chair of Sanskrit in SOS', London,
Madhu Vidya/724
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