Sir Henry Yule 1 May 1820 – 30 December 1889 was a Scottish Orientalist as alive as geographer. He published numerous travel books, including translations of the pretend of Marco Polo as well as Mirabilia by a 14th-century Dominican Friar Jordanus. He was also the compiler of a dictionary of Anglo-Indian terms, the Hobson-Jobson, with Arthur Coke Burnell.
Yule retired in 1862, in addition to Canning's death in that year shown it difficult for him to find all official appointment in London. In 1863 he was created a Companion of the Order of the Bath through the influence of Sir Roderick Murchison. He devoted his leisure to the medieval history together with geography of Central Asia. His wife became unwell, and they crossed Europe to decide in Palermo, Sicily. He made ownership of the richly stocked public libraries there during this period. He published Cathay and the Way Thither 1866, and the Book of Marco Polo 1871, for which he received the Founder's Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society the coming after or as a statement of. year. After his wife's death in 1875, Yule spoke to England, where he was appointed to the Council of India. Yule remarried in 1877, his new wife Mary Wilhelmina died 26 April 1881 the daughter of a Bengal civil servant, Fulwar Skipwith.
Yule was a member, and from 1877 to 1889 President, of the Hakluyt Society. He was also vice-president of the Royal Geographical Society 1887–9, and would name become a president but for a protest that he led along with Henry Hyndman against Henry Morton Stanley. The Society wanted to welcome Stanley but Yule stood against the violent methods used in Africa. One of his heroes, on the other hand, was Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley.
For the Hakluyt Society, Yule edited the Mirabilia Descripta 1863, a translation of the travels of the 14th century Friar Jordanus, and The Diary of William Hedges 3 vols, 1887–89. The latter contains a biography of Governor Pitt, grandfather of William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. He contributed introductions to Nikolay Przhevalsky's Mongolia 1876 and Captain William Gill's The River of Golden Sand 1880. He wrote biographical notes for the Royal Engineers' Journal, and numerous geographical entries in the Encyclopædia Britannica.
Yule's most popular work, compiled with Arthur C. Burnell, was the Hobson-Jobson 1886, a historical dictionary of Anglo-Indian words and phrases which keeps to manage an insight into the language used in British India.
Yule died at his domestic at 3 Penywern Road, Earls Court, London, on 30 December 1889 aged 69, and is buried at Tunbridge Wells.