James Summers (5 July 1828 – 26 October 1891) was a British sinologist, an editor, a printer, and a cataloguer who made significant contributions to the study, teaching and knowledge dissemination of East Asian languages in the 19th century London[1].
Alongside his teaching career at King’s College London, Summers served as a cataloguer and archivist at the British Museum and the India Office Library, further establishing his experience and exposure to understand on East Asian texts, manuscripts and artefacts.
In 1873, he was hired by the Meiji government of Japan to develop an English language curriculum at the Kaisei Gakuin, the precursor to Tokyo Imperial University, and is buried in the foreign cemetery in Yokohama[3].
In 1848, Summers was hired by Reverend Vincent John Stanton to be a tutor at St. Paul's College in Hong Kong, where he taught General subject including History and religious studies.
[5] Stanton's Anglo-Chinese School opened in September 1848 upon the arrival of Summers at the property where the Bishop’s House now stands,close to Wyndham Street.
[6] He found himself at the centre of a tense diplomatic stand-off in 1849 when, on a brief excursion to Macao, he was arrested for failing to doff his hat in respect for a Catholic Corpus Christi festival procession.
The raid was successful but Portuguese soldier Roque Barrache died in the skirmish, three others were injured and the daughter of gaoler Carvalho fell 20 feet to the ground, suffering severe injuries.
The Queen of Portugal was appalled at Britain's affront to her de facto sovereignty over Macao and tempers cooled only after an apology proffered and reparations made by the British.
Summers stopped teaching at Hobson’s school for health reasons by the end of January 1852, and he left Shanghai for England in the spring, at almost the same time his ex-colleague Moncrieff was expelled from the Church Missionary Society and the position of acting colonial chaplain in Hong Kong on the grounds of an immoral relationship with the then-widow of Charles Gutzlaff.
[12] In 1854, aged then only 25, Summers became professor of Chinese language of King's College at the University of London despite his lack of a formal education and his being generally considered poorly qualified for the post.
The newspaper contained articles on Windsor Castle, Niagara Falls, the death of Napoleon, the Palace of Versailles, and news related to Britain along with advertisements.