Oliver Wardrop
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Sir John Oliver Wardrop, KBE, CMG (1864-1948) was a British diplomat, traveller and translator, primarily known as the United Kingdom's first Chief Commissioner of Transcaucasus in Georgia, 1919-21, and also as the founder and benefactor of Kartvelian studies at Oxford University.
After traveling to Georgia (then part of Imperial Russia) in 1887, Sir Oliver wrote his famous book "The Kingdom of Georgia", published in 1888. In 1894 during his second journey to Georgia he mastered Georgian language and published a series of books on Georgia ("The Book of Wisdom and Lies").
In July 1919 Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon offered Sir Oliver Wardrop to become first British Chief Commissioner of Transcaucasus in Tbilisi. The Government of independent Georgia and its Head Noe Zhordania welcomed Sir Oliver's return to Georgia. Sir Oliver, a capable diplomat tried to promote Georgian culture and gather all the support from the west for the newly formed country under the threat of Bolshevik aggression. However, in February 1921 Soviet Russia's Red Army invaded Georgia, putting an end to the short-lived democratic republic. In England, Sir Oliver organized the set up of Georgian Society and the Georgian Committee in London. In 1930, along with W.E.D. Allen, he formed the Georgian Historic Society which published its own journal Georgica. His sister Marjory Wardrop (1869-1909) translated the 12-century Georgian epic of Shota Rustaveli, The Knight in the Panther's Skin into English.
Sir Oliver also catalogued the Georgian manuscripts at the British Museum and continued to add to the Wardrop Collection of Georgian books and manuscripts at the Bodleian Library.
In 1909 Marjory Wardrop Fund at Oxford University was created by Sir Oliver Wardrop after Marjory's death. Through it, Sir Oliver augmented his renowned Collection. It now consists of 1,454 items, of which 215 are periodicals and 73 are series. Included are 74 MSS in the category of texts and collections of Georgian literature[1].
Sir Oliver died in 1948.
