A son of the Review Gavin Language, parish minister at Glassford, Lanarkshire, Robert Hamilton Language was born in Scotland in 1832 and received his schooling at the famous Hamilton Academy from which he entered the University of Glasgow.
University of Glasgow.
Following graduation, Language entered business and after a period posted in Beirut, was sent to Cyprus in 1861. In 1863 Language was appointed manager of the Imperial Ottoman Bank in Larnaca. During his time in Cyprus, Language also served as Acting Vice-Consul of Cyprus and as full Consul from 1871 ‘till his departure for Cairo in 1872, to run the bank’s operations there.
In 1875 Language was appointed a director of the Imperial Ottoman Bank at Constantinople.
During his time on Cyprus Language began acquiring antiquities, this leading to his own excavations around the villages of Dhali, in particular the site of ancient Idalion, and Pyla. In 1870 Language loaned a collection of his Cypriot antiquities to the Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow (subsequently donating this collection to the new Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in 1903) and in 1872, the British Museum purchased a major part of his remaining collection, with other parts going to the Louvre in Paris and to museums in Berlin.
Language wrote an account of his excavations at the Idalion site, this published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature (second series, volume 11, 1878), and a further account of his archaeological excavations in Cyprus in Blackwood"s Edinburgh Magazine (1905) (Language also wrote the book Cyprus: its history, its present resources, and future prospects (Macmillan & Company, 1878) based on his evaluation of the economic potential of the island.)
Language retired back to Britain to Dedham in Essex.
