Arthur Berriedale Keith,FBA (5 April 1879 – 6 October 1944) was a Scottish constitutional lawyer, scholar ofSanskrit andIndologist. He becameRegius Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology and Lecturer on the Constitution of the British Empire in theUniversity of Edinburgh. He served in this role from 1914 to 1944.

Arthur Berriedale Keith was born inEdinburgh, the fourth child and third son of Davidson Keith (1842–1921), an advertising agent, and Margaret Stobie Keith,née Drysdale (1851–1911). All his five siblings were associated with the British Empire in Burma and India:Sir William John Keith KCSI, ICS, was acting governor of Burma in 1925, Steuart Keith (died 1925) was a sessions judge in Burma, Alan Davidson Keith (died 1928) was a barrister in Burma. Both of his sisters married British expatriates in the region.

Keith was educated at theRoyal High School, Edinburgh, theUniversity of Edinburgh (MA 1897; DLitt 1914), andBalliol College, Oxford (BA 1900; BCL 1905; DCL 1911). At Oxford he tookfirsts inClassical Moderations (1899), in Sanskrit and Pali (1900), and inLiterae humaniores (1901). He wascalled to the bar by theInner Temple in 1904 and became a member of theFaculty of Advocates in 1921.

He joined theColonial Office as a clerk in 1901, having ranked first in the Home and Indian civil service examinations; he was said to have received the highest marks ever. He remained in the department until 1914, except for a period with theCrown Agents from 1903 to 1905. From 1912 to 1914 he was private secretary to the permanent under-secretary,Sir John Anderson.

In 1914, he became Regius Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology at the University of Edinburgh. In 1927 he additionally became Lecturer on the Constitution of the British Empire.

Keith was elected an International Member of theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1935.^[1] Keith was awarded an honorary LLD from theUniversity of Leeds in 1936. He was elected aFellow of the British Academy in 1935, but resigned in 1939.

He is buried inGrange Cemetery inEdinburgh with his wife, Margaret Balfour Allan (died 1934). The grave lies on the south side of the central vaults, adjacent to the central archway through the vaults.

Works by or aboutA. Berriedale Keith atWikisource

Bibliography

• Ridgway Foulks Shinn (1 January 1990).Arthur Berriedale Keith, 1879-1944: The Chief Ornament of Scottish Learning. Aberdeen University Press.ISBN 978-0-08-037737-7.
• Ridgway Foulks Shinnb (1981).Guide to Arthur Berriedale Keith Papers and Correspondence, 1896-1941.

• 1879 births
• 1944 deaths
• Academics from Edinburgh
• People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh
• Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
• Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
• Academics of the University of Edinburgh
• British Sanskrit scholars
• Scottish civil servants
• 20th-century Scottish historians
• Scottish Indologists
• Scottish legal writers
• Scottish philologists
• Scottish religious writers
• Scottish political writers
• Scottish translators
• British barristers
• Lawyers from Edinburgh
• Burials at the Grange Cemetery
• International members of the American Philosophical Society

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