W. G. Aston

William George Aston (9 April 1841 – 22 November 1911) was an Anglo-Irish diplomat, author, and scholar of the languages and histories of Korea and Japan.

Early life

Aston was born near Derry, Ireland. He distinguished himself at Queen's College, Belfast (now Queen's University Belfast), which he attended 1859–1863. There he received a very thorough philological training in Latin, Greek, French, German and modern history. One of his professors was James McCosh.

Career

Aston was appointed student interpreter to the British Legation in Japan on 16 August 1864, after passing a competitive examination and obtaining an honorary certificate on 10 August. He mastered the theory of the Japanese verb, and in Edo began, with Ernest Mason Satow, those profound researches into the Japanese language which laid the foundations of the critical study of the Japanese language by western scholars. Aston served in the British consular service in Tokyo, Kobe and Nagasaki.

From 1884 to 1885, Aston served as the United Kingdom's consul-general in Korea. He returned to consular duties in Tokyo as Secretary of British Legation in 1885. Aston retired from the foreign service on a pension in 1889 because of ill-health and settled in England. He was appointed CMG in the 1889 Birthday Honours.

Japan

Aston made a major contribution to the fledgling study of Japan's language and history in the 19th century. Along with Ernest Mason Satow and Basil Hall Chamberlain, he was one of three major British Japanologists active in Japan during the 19th century.