As an officer of the East India Company, Captain Cox was appointed Superintendent of Palongkee outpost after Warren Hastings became Governor of Bengal. Captain Cox was specially mobilised to deal with a century-long conflict between Arakan refugees and local Rakhains (see Rakhine State).[3] He embarked upon the mammoth task of rehabilitating refugees in the area and made significant progress. A premature death took Captain Cox in 1799 before he could finish his work.[4] To commemorate his role in rehabilitation work, a market was established and named after him: Cox's Bazar ("Cox's Market").[5]
Cox was a member of the Asiatic Society, contributing scholarly articles on Asian culture to its journal Asiatic Researches. He is most noted for his long-debunked theory of the origin of chess as a four-player game, known as the Cox-Forbes theory.[6]
^G. P. Ramachandra (September 1981). "Captain Hiram Cox's Mission to Burma, 1796-1798: A Case of Irrational Behaviour in Diplomacy". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 12 (2). Cambridge University Press: 433–451. doi:10.1017/S0022463400009966. JSTOR20070440. S2CID162684044.
