David Lockhart Robertson Lorimer

Lieutenant-Colonel David Lockhart Robertson Lorimer CIE (24 December 1876 in Dundee – 26 February 1962) was a member of the British Indian Army, a political official in the British Indian government and a noted linguist. The Indian Political Service extended to the Middle East, and he was British Political Representative in Cairo during the First World War. Early life Lorimer was born near Dundee and was the son of a Presbyterian clergyman Robert Lorimer and his wife Isabella Lockhart Robertson. He was educated at the High School of Dundee. The family distinguished itself as colonial administrators and academics. His mother's family had long resided in India and in 1896 David Lorimer relocated to India following completion of his military training at Sandhurst. His siblings were all high achievers. His brothers Gordon and Bert also worked in the civil administration in the Indian Political Service. Another, William, became Professor of Classics at St Andrews and translated the New Testament into Scots. He also had three sisters, Hilda (Vice Principal of Somerville College, Oxford), Emilia (a poet), and Florence (who worked with Aurel Stein at the British Museum). In 1910 Lorimer married Emily Overend of Dublin. Emily Overend Lorimer (1881–1949) was a noted journalist, writer and lecturer in German philosophy at Somerville. In the late 1920s and 1930s she became one of the leading commentators in Britain on Nazism and translated works of Adolf Hitler. She translated other German authors for the Faber and Faber publishing house including Gustav Krist. She was also an Oxford philologist, editor of the "Basrah Times" during the First World War, 1916–17, and had links to the Red Cross. Military and political career