Charles Eliot

Sir Charles Eliot (1862–1931) was a British diplomat, colonial administrator and scholar of Asian languages and religions. A brilliant linguist educated at Oxford, he served in Russia, Morocco, Turkey and the United States, was commissioner of the East Africa Protectorate, and then became vice-chancellor of the University of Sheffield and principal of the University of Hong Kong. From 1919 to 1925 he was British ambassador to Japan. His three-volume Hinduism and Buddhism (1921) was a major survey, and his study of Japanese Buddhism appeared after his death, which came at sea on his way home from Japan.