Falconer, THE HON. ION KEITH

Falconer, THE HON. ION KEITH, Orientalist, missionary, and athlete, was the third son of the Earl of Kintore, and was born in Edinburgh, 5th July 1856. From Harrow he went to Cambridge, and there he began evangelistic work, continued in conjunction with Mr Charrington at Mile End Road, London. Here he aided by personal effort in founding an assembly hall, to which he contributed £2000. A keen cyclist, he defeated the then fastest rider in the world (1878), and rode from Land's End to John o' Groat's. He had accepted the Lord Almoner's professorship of Arabic at Cambridge, and was settled at Shaikh Othman, near Aden, as a missionary under the auspices of the Free Church, when his bright and promising career was cut short by fever, May 10, 1887. He was author of the article 'Shorthand' in the Encyclopædia Britannica, and in 1885 translated the Fables of Bidpai (q.v.), with an admirable introduction. See Memoirs of Keith-Falconer, by the Rev. Robert Sinker (Camb. 1888).