Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Peacock, Dmitri Rudolf
PEACOCK, DMITRI RUDOLF (1842–1892), traveller and philologist, was born on 26 Sept. 1842 at the village of Shakhmanovka, district of Kozlov, in the government of Tambov, Russia, being the son of Charles Peacock, estate manager, and his wife Concordia, whose maiden name was Schlegel. He was educated at a school in England, and afterwards at the university of Moscow. On 25 Oct. 1881 he was appointed vice-consul at Batoum, which had then risen to considerable importance in consequence of its annexation by the Russians. He became consul on 27 Jan. 1890. He is said to have owed his appointments to his familiarity with the Russian language. Certainly few foreigners were better acquainted than he with the languages and customs of the mountaineers of the Caucasus, among whom he had established such friendly relations that he was admitted into their most remote fastnesses. One of the fruits of these expeditions was the pubpublication of original vocabularies of five west Caucasian languages—Georgian, Mingrelian, Lazian, Svanetian, and Apkhazian (Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, 1877, pp. 145–56). Up to that time no contribution on these languages had appeared in English. On 14 Oct. 1891 Peacock was appointed consul-general at Odessa, but had only been in residence a few weeks when he died, as is reported, of Caucasian fever, the marshes which surround Batoum rendering that town very unhealthy. His death occurred on 23 May 1892 at Odessa, and he was buried in the British cemetery there. He left a widow, Tatiana née Bakunin, a Russian lady, and six children, three sons and three daughters. They were residing in 1894 at Diadino, in the government of Iver, in Russia. Peacock was a man of rare attainments, and left little by which the world can form a judgment of his powers. According to the ‘Levantine Herald,’ as quoted by the ‘Athenæum,’ he wrote a book on the Caucasus which was not approved by the foreign office, but his widow promised to publish it. It has not yet appeared. Travellers in the Caucasus found a hearty welcome at his house at Batoum.
[Obituary notices in the Times, 17 June 1892, and Athenæum, January–June, 1892, p. 794; information from the Foreign Office, and personal recollections.]