Rev Henry Lansdell

Reverend Henry Lansdell (1841-1919) was a Church of England clergyman and traveller. Born at Tenterden in Kent on 10 January 1841, he was ordained a priest in 1868. In the 1870s he began to travel, at first spending short holidays in the more accessible parts of Europe, but ultimately making long and often arduous journeys in little known parts of Asia until he had visited almost every part of Europe and much of central Asia, Russia, and Siberia. His object was to distribute tracts and bibles provided by London missionary societies in many languages wherever he went, most notably in prisons and hospitals in Siberia and central Asia. He published accounts of his travels in Through Siberia (2 vols., 1882) and Russian Central Asia (2 vols., 1885). The first proved extremely popular, running to five editions in England and also being published in German, Danish, and Swedish.

His travel experience led to his election to the Royal Asiatic Society, the Royal Geographical Society, and the British Association for the Advancement of Science, on whose committee he served.

Photographer unidentified.

According to a caption printed in the lower margin, Rev Landsdell is seen here ‘in Gilyak costume of salmon skin’. [The Gilyaks are a people of Outer Manchuria.] Note the large ring piercing his nasal septum.