Sir Robert Hamilton Lang,

KCMG KCMG may refer to * KC Motorgroup, based in Hong Kong, China * Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, British honour * KCMG-LP, radio station in New Mexico, USA * KCMG, callsign 1997-2001 of Los Angeles radio station KKLQ (FM) ...

(1832-1913) was a Scottish-born financier, diplomat and collector of antiquities.

Early life and career

A son of the Rev. Gavin Lang, parish minister at

Glassford Glassford (; locally known as ''The Glesart'' ) is a small village located south of Hamilton, and north-east of Strathaven, in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It has a population of roughly 500–600 people. Features include the 19th-century P ...

, Lanarkshire, Robert Hamilton Lang was born in

manse in 1832. His ten siblings included John Marshall Lang later Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. He received his schooling at the famous

Hamilton Academy Hamilton Academy was a school in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. The school was described as "one of the finest schools in Scotland" in the Cambridge University Press County Biography of 1910, and was featured in a 1950 Scottish Seconda ...

from which he entered the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

. Following graduation, Lang entered business and after a period posted in Beirut, was sent to Cyprus in 1861. In 1863 Lang was appointed manager of the

Imperial Ottoman Bank The Ottoman Bank ( tr, Osmanlı Bankası), known from 1863 to 1925 as the Imperial Ottoman Bank (french: Banque Impériale Ottomane, ota, بانق عثمانی شاهانه) and correspondingly referred to by its French acronym BIO, was a bank ...

Larnaca Larnaca ( el, Λάρνακα ; tr, Larnaka) is a city on the south east coast of Cyprus and the capital of the district of the same name. It is the third-largest city in the country, after Nicosia and Limassol, with a metro population of 1 ...

During his time in Cyprus, Lang also served as Acting Vice-Consul of Cyprus and as full Consul from 1871 'till his departure for Cairo in 1872, to run the bank's operations there. In 1875 Lang was appointed a director of the Imperial Ottoman Bank at Constantinople. Lang was later appointed Director General of the Imperial Ottoman Bank, based in Constantinople, and was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1886. He retired in October 1902, when he was received by the Sultan who conferred upon him the Grand Cordon of the

Order of Medjidie Order of the Medjidie ( ota, نشانِ مجیدی, August 29, 1852 – 1922) is a military and civilian order of the Ottoman Empire. The Order was instituted in 1851 by Sultan Abdulmejid I. History Instituted in 1851, the Order was awarded in fi ...

set in brilliants. Following his resignation, he moved back to Britain and settled in

Dedham, Essex Dedham is a village within the borough of Colchester in northeast Essex, England, on the River Stour and the border of Essex and Suffolk. The nearest town to Dedham is the small market town of Manningtree. Governance Dedham is part of the elect ...

Excavations and collections

During his time on Cyprus Lang began acquiring antiquities, this leading to his own excavations around the villages of Dhali, in particular the site of ancient

Idalion Idalion or Idalium ( el, Ιδάλιον, ''Idalion'') was an ancient city in Cyprus, in modern Dali, Nicosia District. The city was founded on the copper trade in the 3rd millennium BC. Its name in the 8th century BC was "Ed-di-al" as it appears ...

, and

Pyla Pyla (; ) is a village in Larnaca District, Cyprus. It is one of only four villages located within the United Nations Buffer Zone, the other three being Athienou, Troulloi and Deneia. Pyla is located in the eastern part of the island, adjacent ...

. In 1870 Lang loaned a collection of his Cypriot antiquities to the Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow (subsequently donating this collection to the new

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is a museum and art gallery in Glasgow, Scotland. It reopened in 2006 after a three-year refurbishment and since then has been one of Scotland's most popular visitor attractions. The museum has 22 galleries, h ...

in 1903) and in 1872, the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

purchased a major part of his remaining collection, with other parts going to the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

in Paris and to museums in Berlin. Lang wrote an account of his excavations at the Idalion site, this published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature (second series, volume 11, 1878), and a further account of his archaeological excavations in Cyprus in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1905.) (Lang also wrote the book ''Cyprus: its history, its present resources, and future prospects'' (Macmillan & Co., 1878) based on his evaluation of the economic potential of the island.)

Later life and ecclesiastical family

Apart from his father having been a Church of Scotland minister, Robert Hamilton Lang's younger brother, the Very Rev Dr John Marshall Lang (1834-1909) was a Church of Scotland minister, a Moderator of its General Assembly (1893–94) and Principal of the

University of Aberdeen , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...

(1900-09.) Robert Hamilton Lang's nephew (third son of son of John Marshall Lang), Cosmo Gordon Lang was to become

Archbishop of York The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers th ...

(1909-1928) and latterly, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1928 to 1942. Another nephew (the Very Rev. Marshall Buchanan Lang, fifth son of John Marshall Lang) was to be appointed Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, 1935–36. Ill health precluded his attendance at the marriage of his second daughter (Mary Alice Lang) in New York in 1911 and he died at Hampstead, London, in 1913.
New York Times 15 June 1911. Retrieved 6 April 2011

Publications

On coins discovered during recent excavations in the island of Cyprus
The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Numismatic Society New Series, Vol. 11 (1871), 1-18. *'' iarchive:cyprusitshistor00langgoog, Cyprus: its history, its present resources, and future prospects.'' Macmillan. 1878. * Narrative of Excavations in a Temple at Dali (Idalium) in Cyprus. ''Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature,'' 2nd ser. 11, 30–71. 1878. * Colonial and Indian Exhibition 1886. Handbook to Cyprus (with map of island) and catalogue of the exhibits, London. 1886. * Report (with three woodcuts) upon the results of the Cyprus representation at the Colonial & Indian Exhibition of 1886. London. 1886 *
On Archaic Survivals in Cyprus
The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 16 (1887), 186–188. * Reminiscences - archaeological research in Cyprus. ''Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine,'' 177:1075, 622–639. 1905.

Collections

Cypriot collection in the British Museum

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lang, Robert Hamilton 1832 births 1913 deaths People educated at Hamilton Academy Alumni of the University of Glasgow Scottish knights Scottish bankers 19th-century Scottish people 20th-century Scottish businesspeople 19th-century Scottish businesspeople