Arthur Lillie

Born on 24 February 1831 and christened George Arthur Howard, Arthur Lillie was the youngest son of Sir John Scott Lillie and Louisa Lillie. He served as an officer in the British Indian Army, and his time in India shaped the interests that would define his writing.

Lillie became a Buddhist and spent much of his later career writing about religion, especially Buddhism and its possible connections with Christianity. His books include Buddha and Early Buddhism (1881), Buddhism in Christendom, Or, Jesus, the Essene (1887), The Influence of Buddhism on Primitive Christianity (1893), and India in Primitive Christianity (1909). He also wrote a novel, The Cobra Diamond, and books on croquet, showing how wide-ranging his interests were.

Not all of his ideas were well received by scholars, but he was clearly an energetic and original writer who followed his convictions. He also became a landscape painter, joined the Suffolk painters, remained unmarried, and died in Kensington on 28 November 1911.