William Churchill, FRAI,

AIA AIA or A.I.A. or Aia may refer to: Aia * Aia, a small town in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa, Spain * Aia, current Kutaisi, ancient capital of Colchis * Aia, another name for Aea (Malis), an ancient town in Greece * ''Aia'', the collected ed ...

, AAG (October 5, 1859 – June 9, 1920) was an American

Polynesia Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...

ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...

and

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

, born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York, and educated at

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

, where he wrote for campus humor magazine ''

The Yale Record ''The Yale Record'' is the campus humor magazine of Yale University. Founded in 1872, it became the oldest humor magazine in the world when ''Punch'' folded in 2002."History", The Yale Record, March 10, 2010. http://www.yalerecord.com/about/histo ...

''. In 1896 he became consul general to

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

. In 1897 his commission was extended, making him also Consul General to

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

. In 1902 he began working for ''

New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...

'', where he later became a member of the editorial staff. In 1915, he took a position as research associate in primitive philology at the

Carnegie Institution The Carnegie Institution of Washington (the organization's legal name), known also for public purposes as the Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS), is an organization in the United States established to fund and perform scientific research. T ...

in Washington, D.C."William Churchill". ''Obituary Record of Yale Graduates 1919–1920''. New Haven: Yale University. August 1920. p. 1425. While working for the

Committee on Public Information The Committee on Public Information (1917–1919), also known as the CPI or the Creel Committee, was an independent agency of the government of the United States under the Wilson administration created to influence public opinion to support the ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he suffered a skull fracture inflicted by an enemy spy. Churchill was the author of: * ''A Princess of Fiji'' (1892) *''Samoa o le Vavau'' (1902) * ''The Polynesian Wanderings, Tracks of the Migration Deduced from an Examination of the Proto-Samoan Content of Efaté and other Languages of Melanesia'' (1910)William Churchill (1911) ''The Polynesian Wanderings''
Carnegie institution of Washington (Google eBook) * ''Beach-la-Mar, the Jargon or Trade Speech of the Western Pacific'' (1911) * ''Easter Island, Rapanui Speech and the Peopling of Southeast Polynesia'' (1912) * ''The Subanu, Studies of a Sub-Visayan Mountain Folk of Mindanao'' (1913) *

References

External links

William Churchill (1916) "Samoan Kava Custom"
''Holmes Anniversary Volume'' (Google eBook)
William Churchill (1917) ''Club Types of Nuclear Polynesia''
The Carnegie Institution of Washington (Google eBook) {{DEFAULTSORT:Churchill, William 1859 births 1920 deaths American ethnologists American diplomats American philologists American political writers American male non-fiction writers Writers from New York (state) Recipients of the Order of Leopold II