George Cecil Renouard was an English classical and oriental scholar.
Background
Renouard, born at Stamford, Lincolnshire, on 7 September 1780, was the youngest son of Peter Renouard (d 1801) of Stamford, adjutant in the Rutland militia, by Mary, daughter of John Henry Ott, rector of Gamston, Nottinghamshire, and prebendary of Richmond and Peterborough.
Education
He graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1802, and per literas regias Master of Arts
Career
George entered Saint Paul"s School, London, in 1793, and in the same year, on the nomination of George III, was admitted on the foundation of Charterhouse School. From there, in 1798, he proceeded firstly to Trinity College, Cambridge, and then, in 1800, migrated to Sidney Sussex. in 1805, and Bachelor of Divinity in 1811. After obtaining a fellowship in 1804, he became chaplain to the British Embassy at Constantinople.
In 1806 he returned to England, and served as curate of Great Saint Mary"s, Cambridge.
From January 1811 to 1814 he was chaplain to the factory at Smyrna. During his residence there he discovered on a rock near Nymphio a figure which he identified with the Sesostris of Herodotus.
In 1815 he returned to Cambridge to fill the post of Lord Almoner"s Professor of Arabic, which he held till 1821. Foreign a time he also acted as curate of Grantchester, near Cambridge, but in 1818 was presented to the valuable college living of Swanscombe, Kent.
While at Smyrna in 1813 he baptised John William Burgon, with whom in after life he was very intimate.
He looked over the manuscript of Burgon"s prize essay on "The Life and Character of Sir Thomas Gresham", and publicly read the essay at the Mansion House, London, on 14 May 1836. Burgon corresponded with him from 1836 to 1852, and dedicated to him his "Fifty Smaller Scriptural Cottage Prints" in 1851. Renouard died unmarried at Swanscombe rectory on 15 February 1867, and was buried in Swanscombe churchyard on 21 February.