Robert Barkley
Robert Barkley Shaw (1839–1879)
After giving birth to five daughters Martha finally had a son. Robert Barkley Shaw was an exceptional scholar. His early education in France, Germany and Italy made him fluent in European languages and he was a prize-winning student at Marlborough College before proceeding to Cambridge. However, throughout his early life he suffered from rheumatic fever. Doctors “declared his constitution was such that he must be kept to a quiet, unexciting life: thus his military aspirations were effectively damped, and for the same reason he was debarred, by the inability to bear the necessary physical and mental strain, from entering any of the learned professions.” (Obituary in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1879)
In 1859 he went to Kangra in the Himalayas, where he settled as a tea-planter having been advised the climate would be good for his health. He showed an interest in local customs and learnt the local language. In 1868 he set out to explore the country north of the Karakoram Mountains with the aim of setting up new trade links. He was the first Englishman to visit the Silk Road cities of Yarkand and Kashgar. He returned on an official mission in 1870. His achievements were recognised by the Royal Geographical Society, who awarded him a Gold Medal in 1872, and led to him being appointed to positions in the Indian Political Department. He was British Joint Commissioner at Ladakh from 1872 to 1877 and in 1878 he became British Resident at Mandalay, where he died unmarried aged 39 a year later.
Photo: Robert Barkley Shaw kindly provided by a relative. Studio: Bourne & Shepherd, India.
Robert Barkley Shaw
Robert Barkley Shaw was the author of:
Visits to High Tartary, Yarkand and Kashgar, John Murray, 1871
A sketch of the Túrkí language as spoken in Eastern Túrkistán (Káshgar & Yarkand), Part I, 1875 and Part 2, 1880
On the Ghalchah Languages (Wakhi and Sarikoli), 1876
In the British Library India Office there is a Commemorative Scrapbook of Robert Barkley Shaw's life compiled by sister, Clara Jane.
The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford is home to a fine collection of garments that Robert Barkley Shaw brought back from Yarkland and Kashgar. Some of were presented to him by Yakub Beg, then ruler of Kashgar.
http://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/collection/4/1257/1267
Robert Barkley Shaw has an entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as well as a Wikipedia page: