William Churchill (ethnologist)

William Churchill
Newspaper drawing of Churchill, 1896.
Born	William Churchill October 5, 1859 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	June 9, 1920 (aged 60) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Residence	Polynesia
Nationality	American
Education	Yale University
Occupation	Polynesian ethnologist and philologist Consul General to Samoa and Tonga
Employer	Federal government of the United States New York Sun Carnegie Institution
Known for	A Princess of Fiji (1892) The Polynesian Wanderings, Tracks of the Migration Deduced from an Examination of the Proto-Samoan Content of Efaté and other Languages of Melanesia (1910) Beach-la-Mar, the Jargon or Trade Speech of the Western Pacific (1911) Easter Island, Rapanui Speech and the Peopling of Southeast Polynesia (1912) The Subanu, Studies of a Sub-Visayan Mountain Folk of Mindanao (1913)
Spouse(s)	Llewella (Pierce) Churchill
Parent(s)	William Churchill Sarah Jane (Starkweather) Churchill
Honors	F.R.A.I. Archaeological Institute of America Association of American Geographers Order of Leopold II

William Churchill F.R.A.I., AIA, AAG (1859–1920) was an American Polynesian ethnologist and philologist, born in Brooklyn, New York, and educated at Yale, where he wrote for campus humor magazine The Yale Record.^[1] In 1896 he became Consul General to Samoa. In 1897 his commission was extended, making him also Consul General to Tonga. In 1902 he began working for New York Sun, where he later became a member of the editorial staff. In 1915, he took a position as research associate in primitive philology at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C.^[2]

While working for the Committee on Public Information during World War I, he suffered a skull fracture inflicted by an enemy spy.^[3]

Churchill was the author of:

• A Princess of Fiji (1892)^[4]
• The Polynesian Wanderings, Tracks of the Migration Deduced from an Examination of the Proto-Samoan Content of Efaté and other Languages of Melanesia (1910)^[5]
• Beach-la-Mar, the Jargon or Trade Speech of the Western Pacific (1911)
• Easter Island, Rapanui Speech and the Peopling of Southeast Polynesia (1912)
• The Subanu, Studies of a Sub-Visayan Mountain Folk of Mindanao (1913)

References

1. "William Churchill". Obituary Record of Yale Graduates 1919-1920. New Haven: Yale University. August, 1920. p. 1425.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. William Churchill (1892) A Princess of Fiji, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York (Google eBook)
5. William Churchill (1911) The Polynesian Wanderings, Carnegie institution of Washington (Google eBook)

External links

• William Churchill (1916) "Samoan Kava Custom", Holmes Anniversary Volume (Google eBook)
• William Churchill (1917) Club Types of Nuclear Polynesia, The Carnegie Institution of Washington (Google eBook)