Warwick Ball is an Australian-born Near-eastern archeeologist. In the past 30 years, Ball has mainly excavated in Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. Ball was formerly director of excavations at The British School of Archaeology in Iraq. He currently resides in Scotland.
Diana Crawford was appointed Secretary and Librarian of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1963. She retired in 1977 and was elected a Fellow honoris causa of the Society in 1978.
Ulla Johansen was an Estonian-born German ethnologist. She was director of the ethnology department at the University of Cologne from 1973 to 1990.
Sir Harry Smith Parkes was a British diplomat who served as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary and Consul General of the United Kingdom to the Empire of Japan from 1865 to 1883 and the Chinese Qing Empire from 1883 to 1885, and Minister to Korea in 1884. He was a Corresponding Member of the Society from 1854, and later a Non-Resident Member. He was also for some time the President of the Asiatic Society of Japan.
A biography of Sir Harry Smith Parkes was included in the proceedings of the Anniversary General Meeting on 18 May 1855, published in the JRAS, Volume 17, Issue 3, July 1885.
The Finnish Oriental Society (Finska Orientsällskapet) (SIS) was founded in December 1917 to promote research and knowledge of Oriental cultures in Finland. Originally focused on the Middle East, it has since expanded to include Asia and Africa as a whole.