Skeat, Walter William, 1866-1953

Walter William Skeat was born and educated at Cambridge, where he studied classics. As a colonial administrator in Selangor, he developed an interest in Malay culture, and shared leadership of a scientific expedition into uncivilized Malay states and Thailand in 1899-1900. As a result, he wrote and published the first comprehensive study of Malay and Malayan aboriginal beliefs and customs, and also donated a collection of artifacts to the British Museum from his trip. An illness contracted on the expedition forced him to retire from colonial administration, and he spent the rest of his life in London, as official guide-lecturer for the British Museum.