Henry George Keene

Henry George Keene (30 September 1781–29 January 1864) was an English employee of the East India Company, as soldier, civil servant, and orientalist. He was known as a Persian scholar, and also was a churchman and academic.

Life Born on 30 September 1781, Keene was the only son of Thomas Keene and a grandson of the architect Henry Keene; his mother was Jane, sister of George Harris, 1st Baron Harris. He was educated privately, partly by Jacques-François Menou.

Keene went to India as a cadet in the Madras Presidency army about 1798, and shortly after became adjutant of a sepoy regiment, which formed part of the brigade commanded by Colonel Arthur Wellesley. In May 1799 it took part in the siege of Seringapatam, where Keene led the company carrying the scaling-ladders for the storming party (4 May). In poor health, he obtained an appointment in the Madras civil service through his uncle, Lord Harris, the commander-in-chief, in February 1801. After a short visit to England he entered Fort William College in Calcutta, then newly established, for the training of young civil officers. At this period he visited the continent, in company with Philip Henry Stanhope, 4th Earl Stanhope, and met Archduke John of Austria and Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall, with both of whom he kept up a correspondence. In March 1819 he unsuccessfully contested Sir Thomas Adams's Chair of Arabic at Cambridge University. Fifty-Seven : Some Account of the Administration in Indian Districts During the Revolt of the Bengal Army (London: W. H. Allen, 1883)

The Persian Fables were translated into Tamil in 1840, and a new edition was published in 1880 by his daughter Katharine.

Family In 1824 Keene married Anne, daughter of Charles Apthorp Wheelwright, formerly of Boston, Massachusetts, a loyalist refugee. He left two sons and two daughters.