The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland was founded by the eminent Sanskrit scholar Sir Henry Thomas Colebrooke on the 15th March 1823. It received its Royal Charter from King George IV on the 11th August 1824 'for the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia'. It continues as a forum for those who are interested in the languages, cultures and history of Asia to meet and exchange ideas.

Major J.E. Barwis-Holliday was interested in the Far East. He was the British delegate at the eighth congress of the International Organisation for the Industrial, Scientific and Cultural Advancement in Japan. He owned properties in Sussex and Cumberland. He was a member to the Royal Asiatic Society from 1970 until his death in 1983 and served on the Society's Council. He endowed the Barwis-Holliday Award while he was alive with further money bequeathed on his death.

Richard Phelan was born in 1934 In Kilmacow, Ireland, became Brother Peter in the La Salle Order in 1950 and went to Sabah in 1963. A teacher in various schools throughout his career in Sabah, and principal of St Martin's Secondary School in Tambunan during 1978-87, he had many sustained interests in the indigenous cultures. He was one of Sabah's resident authorities on a number of cultural subjects. He was given the 1980 Barwis-Holliday Award for Far Eastern Studies by the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland for his essay on the Bobohizan priesthood system in Sabah. He spent some 15 years at Tanjung Aru near Kota Kinabalu. then lived about 10 years in Tambunan and lived in the Nabawan area since 1990. He died in 2010.