Sidney Herbert Ray
| Sidney Herbert Ray MA | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||
| Born | 1858 | ||||||||
| Died | 1939 | ||||||||
| Residence |
36 Penshurst Road, South Hackney [1894] 84 Grange Road, Ilford, Essex; and 56 Tredegar Road, North Bow, E. [1899] 218 Balfour Road, Ilford, Essex [1900] Fale' Ula, St Augustine's Avenue, Thorpe Bay, Essex [1927] | ||||||||
| Occupation |
educator linguist | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Contents
Notes
Office Notes
AI Council 1903 Member
AI Council 1904 Member
AI Council 1905 Member
RAI Council 1909 Member
RAI Council 1910 Member
RAI Council 1912-13 Member
RAI Council 1913 Member
RAI Council 1914 Member
RAI Council 1915 Member
RAI Council 1917 Member
RAI Council 1918 Member
RAI Council 1919 Vice President
RAI Council 1920 Vice President
RAI Council 1921 Vice President
RAI Council 1922 Member
RAI Council 1923 Member
RAI Council 1924 Member
RAI Council 1927 Member
RAI Council 1928 Member
RAI Council 1929 Member
RAI Council 1930-31 Member
House Notes
1889.12.10 proposed, named Rev. (but this crossed out when election noted)
1928 Rivers Memorial Medal
1939.01.24 death reported, letter from President to next of kin: It was with great sorrow that I learnt of the death of your uncle Mr Sidney Ray and I should like to express to you on behalf of the Council and Fellows of this Institute my sincere sympathy in your bereavement. It will mean a very great loss to all anthropologists, and particularly to the study of Oceanic languages in which he had long been the leading and irreplaceable authority. He is sure of an honourable place in our annals and in the memory of all who knew him.
death noted in Report of the Council 1938-1939
obit in Man 39. 57
Notes From Elsewhere
Sidney Herbert Ray (28 May 1858 – 1 January 1939) was a comparative and descriptive linguist who specialized in Melanesian languages. In 1892, he read an important paper, The languages of British New Guinea, to the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists. In that paper, he established the distinction between the Austronesian and Papuan languages of New Guinea.[1] Although he never held an academic position, and was employed throughout his working life as a school teacher,[2] S. H. Ray was an energetic fieldworker, and participated in a number of expeditions.
His first fieldwork was carried out as part of A. C. Haddon's 1898 Torres Straits Expedition along with W. H. R. Rivers, C. G. Seligman and Anthony Wilkin. At the time Ray was a primary school teacher, who had already made a study of two Torres Straits languages on the basis of missionary publications and data supplied by Haddon.
Born London; died Southend.
Spent career as teacher at Olga Street School Bethnal Green. Authority on Melanesian languages. Numerous publications on subject. Accompanied Cambridge expedition to Fly River, New Guinea, 1898-9. Honorary MA from Cambridge.
Publications
External Publications
House Publications
Songs and Specimens of the Language of New Georgia, Solomon Islands; with B.T. Somerville; in JRAI Vol. 26 (1897), pp. 436-453
