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PALGRAVE, WILLIAM GIFFORD (1826–1888), diplomatist, second son of Sir [q. v.] deputy-keeper of the Public Records, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Dawson Turner, banker, of Great Yarmouth, was born at 22 Parliament Street, Westminster, 24 Jan. 1826. He was sent to Charterhouse (1838–1844), where he won the gold medal for classical verse, and became captain of the school. Thence he went to Trinity College, Oxford, where he had gained an open scholarship, and at the age of twenty, after only two and a half years' residence, he graduated, taking a first-class in literæ humaniores and a second-class in mathematics. He already felt the attraction of the East, and, turning aside from the promise of distinction in England which was before him, he at once went to India, and received a lieutenant's commission in the 8th Bombay regiment of native infantry. Inheriting, as he did, his father's linguistic aptitude, educated as he was beyond most Indian subalterns of his time, fearless, energetic, and resourceful in character, he appeared to have the prospect of a rapid rise in his profession; but early impressions derived from reading a translation of the famous Arab romance ‘Antar’ returned upon him when in the East, and gave him a bent towards missionary work among the Arabian peoples. He became a convert to Roman catholicism, was received into a jesuit establishment in the Madras presidency, and was ordained a priest. For fifteen years he continued connected with the Italian and French branches of the order. He was employed in its missionary work in Southern India until June 1853, when he proceeded to Rome. After engaging in study there until the autumn of that year, he went to Syria, where he was for some years a successful missionary, particularly in the town of Zahleh. He made many converts, founded numerous schools, and acquired an extraordinary familiarity with Arab manners and habits of life and thought.

The often-repeated story that he had officiated as ‘Imaum’ in mosques is without foundation. His own repugnance to Mohammedanism and the rules of his order alike made it impossible; but he could, and did, pass without difficulty for a native of the East. When the Druse persecution of the Maronites broke out, he was invited by the Maronite Christians, among whom he had acquired great influence, to place himself at their head and give them the benefit of his military training; but, though willing to counsel them as a friend, he could not as a jesuit take up arms and lead them. From the massacre at Damascus of June 1861 he escaped with bare life, and the Syrian mission being for the time broken up, he returned to Western Europe. Napoleon III obtained from him a report on the causes of the persecution of the Syrian Christians, and he also visited England and Ireland. Later in 1861 he delivered lectures in various parts of Ireland on the Syrian massacres, which were afterwards republished from newspaper reports, under the title ‘Four Lectures on the Massacres of the Christians in Syria,’ London, 1861, 8vo. In 1862 he returned to Syria.

For many years Arabia had remained closed to Europeans. Palgrave now undertook an adventurous journey across Central Arabia, which he accomplished in 1862 and 1863. His object was to ascertain how far missionary enterprise was possible among pure Arabs, but he also accepted a mission from Napoleon III, who furnished funds for the journey, for the purpose of reporting on the attitude of the Arabs towards France, and on the possibility of obtaining pure Arabian blood-stock for breeding purposes in Europe. Passing as a Syrian christian doctor and merchant, he found his best protection in his intimate acquaintance with Arabian manners, speech, and letters. But he carried his life in his hands; for, in the midst of the Wahabi fanatics of Central Arabia, detection would certainly have been his ruin. Once at Haill he was recognised as having been seen at Damascus, and at Riadh he was suspected and accused of being an English spy, but natural hardihood and presence of mind, aided by good fortune, secured his safety. The result of his journey he embodied in one of the most fascinating of modern books of