Robert Caesar Childers

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Robert Caesar Childers (1838 - July 25, 1876) was a British Orientalist scholar, compiler of the first Pāli dictionary. He was the father of British soldier and Irish nationalist Robert Erskine Childers and grandfather of the fourth President of Ireland, Erskine Hamilton Childers.

Childers was born in Nice, France, to English parents. From 1860-64 he was an official in the Ceylon civil service. During this period he studied Sinhalese culture, particularly the Pāli language. In 1869 he published the first Pāli text in Britain, and began to work on a Pāli dictionary, which was published 1872-75.

In 1872 he was appointed sub-librarian at the India Office, and in the following year he became the first professor of Pali and Buddhist literature at University College, London.

In 1876 Childers' dictionary was awarded the Volney prize by the Institute of France. He died in London the same year.