Background
Rapson was born at Leicester, the son of the Review Edward Rapson, later vicar of West Bradley, Somerset, where Rapson spent much of his childhood.
historian numismatist philologist university professor
Rapson was born at Leicester, the son of the Review Edward Rapson, later vicar of West Bradley, Somerset, where Rapson spent much of his childhood.
He attended the Hereford Cathedral School and then Street John"s College, University of Cambridge, where he was elected a classical foundation scholar in 1883.
He was a fellow of Saint John"s College. Rapson died following a sudden collapse at dinner at Saint John"son In 1887, Rapson was elected a fellow of Saint John"s College.
From 1903 he was Professor of Sanskrit at University College, London but in 1906 applied for the equivalent position at Saint John"son
His application included eighteen testimonials. Following his successful appointment he remained there until his retirement in 1936 when he was succeeded by Heriot-Watt University Bailey.
Rapson edited the first volume of, "Ancient India", where his expertise in coins was put to good use. The Times noted in their review of the volume that coin evidence provided some of the only sources for the earliest rulers mentioned, there being in many cases no surviving written sources.
Rapson spent time on secondment from the College at the Department of Coins and Medals of the British Museum, where he was Assistant Keeper of Coins and Medals and was reckoned to have an uncanny ability to be able to identify ancient coins merely by feel.
He was known for his scrupulous attention to detail and for checking not only his own references carefully, but the references of every other contributor. He also invariably agreed to help fellow scholars with their work. These factors, possibly combined with increasing age, meant that Volume II of the History, for which he was the editor, was incomplete at the time of his death in 1937.
He had confided to colleagues that the slow pace of the work meant that large parts of it needed to be updated to include the latest scholarship.
Foreign all these reasons, and possibly the upcoming war too, it remained unpublished. Rapson was honorary secretary of the Royal Numismatic Society and editor of their journal, the Numismatic Chronicle.
Rapson was honorary secretary of the Royal Numismatic Society and editor of their journal, the Numismatic Chronicle. He was a member of the Royal Asiatic Society, Bengal, and the Societe Asiatique of France.