Richard James Wilkinson CMG (29 May 1867 – 5 December 1941)[1][2] was a British Colonial administrator, scholar of Malay, and historian.[3] The son of a British Consul in Greece, Richard James Wilkinson, was born in 1867 in Salonika (Thessaloniki), Greece.[1][4] After Felsted School was an undergraduate of Trinity College, Cambridge.[4] He was multilingual and had a command of French, German, Greek, Italian and Spanish, and later, Malay and Hokkien which he qualified in, in 1889, while a cadet after joining the Straits Settlements Civil Service.[4] He was an important contributor to the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Asiatic Society (JMBRAS).[5] On 7 November 1900 Wilkinson presented a collection of Malay manuscripts and printed books to the University of Cambridge Library.[6] He was appointed CMG in 1912.[7]