Sir Gerard Leslie Makins Clauson (28 April 1891 – 1 May 1974) was anEnglish civil servant, businessman, andOrientalist best known for his studies of theTurkic languages. He was born in Malta.
The eldest son of MajorSir John Eugene Clauson, Gerard Clauson attendedEton College, where he was Captain of School, and where, at age 15 or 16, he published a critical edition of a shortPali text, "A New Kammavācā" in theJournal of the Pali Text Society. In 1906, when his father was named Chief Secretary forCyprus, he taught himself Turkish to complement his school Greek. He studied atCorpus Christi College, Oxford, in classics, receiving his degree inGreats, then becameBoden Scholar inSanskrit, 1911; Hall-HoughtmanSyriac Prizeman, 1913; and James MewArabic Scholar, 1920. DuringWorld War I, he fought in thebattle of Gallipoli but spent the majority of his effort insignals intelligence, concerned withGerman andOttoman army codes.
These were the years in which the greatCentral Asian expeditions ofSven Hedin, SirAurel Stein and others were unearthing new texts in a variety of languages includingTocharian andSaka (bothKhotanese, andTumshuqese). Clauson actively engaged in unraveling their philologies, as well asChineseBuddhist texts in theTibetan script.
Clauson also worked on theTangut language, and in 1938–1939 wrote aSkeleton dictionary of the Hsi-hsia language. The manuscript copy is held at theSchool of Oriental and African Studies in London,[1] and was published as a facsimile edition in 2016.
In 1919 he began work in theBritish Civil Service, which was to culminate in serving as the Assistant Under-Secretary of State in theColonial Office, 1940–1951, in which capacity he chaired the International Wheat Conference, 1947, and International Rubber Conference, 1951. After his mandatory retirement at age 60, he switched to a business career and in time served as chairman ofPirelli, 1960–1969.
A partially filled notebook containing Sir Gerard Clauson'sNotes on Kashgari's Divan lugat at-Turk and other cognate subjects is held at the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham.[2]
