Otto William Samson was born in Germany in 1900. After studying at the Universities of Freiburg, Berlin, Munich and Hamburg, he took up a position at the Hamburg Museum of Ethnology in 1928. He joined an ethnographical expedition in China but on returning to Germany in the early 1930s, found that, due to his Jewish ethnicity, his position at the Museum gradually became untenable. He moved to England in late 1933 after being dismissed from his post. Charles Gabriel Seligman found him work at University College's Galton Laboratory. He was awarded a travel grant from the Tweedie Exploration Fund administered by the University of Edinburgh's Faculty of Arts, which allowed him to undertake extensive research in India and Myanmar for two years. On his return he continued working at the Galton Laboratory but also volunteered in the Oriental Antiquities and Ethnography Department at the British Museum, a position which gradually became paid and full time through the Second World War. After the War he took up the position of Curator at the Horniman Museum, moving with his wife to live near the Museum. He modernised the museum and created important collections of musical instruments and masks. He was a member of the Royal Asiatic Society for more than thirty years and served on the Council in the 1960s. He died in 1976.
Elizabeth Samson, wife of Otto, played an important part in the social network of academics and scholars to which they belonged. She hosted dinner parties and buffet suppers at their flat. She instigated the O.W. Samson Award in 1986-87. She died in 1994 after being knocked down, crossing the road.
The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland was founded by the eminent Sanskrit scholar Sir Henry Thomas Colebrooke on the 15th March 1823. It received its Royal Charter from King George IV on the 11th August 1824 'for the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia'. It continues as a forum for those who are interested in the languages, cultures and history of Asia to meet and exchange ideas.
