The Royal Asiatic Society has recently been abeneficiary from the estate of Mrs Dorothy Wales,widow of H. G. Quaritch Wales, the erudite scholarof early Southeast Asian history who died in 1981.The occasion of this bequest, the contents of whichare discussed in the Librarian's report herein (pp.169–70), prompts this note on the contribution ofQuaritch Wales to Southeast Asian studies.

Quaritch Wales was born in 1900 and educated atCharterhouse and Queens' College, Cambridge. Heimmediately embarked on a career in Southeast Asia,from which he was never to be deflected. At the ageof 23 he entered the service of the SiameseGovernment where he served from 1924 to 1928 as anadviser to the courts of King Rama VI and King RamaVII. The first-hand knowledge gained from thisexperience formed the basis of his pioneering studySiamese State Ceremonies (1931), which remains awork of unrivalled insight into the Brahmanicalrituals and Buddhist accretions of Thai kingship. Hefollowed this with another work based on hisexperiences of Thai court and state functions,Ancient Siamese Government and Administration(1934).