The BSA and the Ben Nevis Observatory

The £500 Government Grant to the BSA accounted for more than a quarter of the School's income for the period 1894-1918. However it did not meet with approval in a letter to The Scotsman (5 October 1904). The correspondent was making a complaint to MPs from Scotland over the lack for funding for the Ben Nevis Observatory.

Interestingly the BSA funding was on a par (in 1904) with the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland. The Scottish Meteorological Society was awarded ('a miserable') £100, and the correspondent added:

Even the British School at Athens has a grant of £500 per annum, but a similar sum could not be spared for the Ben Nevis Observatory!

However by this period several students from Scotland had been admitted as Students.

The letter closed with this parting shot:

It is evident that for Government grants only English and Irish need apply.

BSA Corporate Subscriptions (1894-1918)

The re-organisation of the BSA under Cecil Harcourt-Smith brought about an increase in the amount of money attracted from corporate bodies. This income represented around 51% of the total subscriptions for the BSA during this period. The Rules and Regulations stated:

VI. A corporate body subscribing not less than £ 50 a year, for a term of years, shall, during that term, have the right to nominate a member of the Managing Committee.

Representatives from the Hellenic Society and Oxford University on the Managing Committee were joined by a representative from Cambridge (from 1896/97). Each institution then gave £100 per annum (except for the Hellenic Society and Oxford during the First World War).

The BSA was regularly supported by a subscription of £5.5.0 from the Society of Antiquaries of London, and £25 from HRH the Prince of Wales (and after he became King).

Oxford Colleges

• Brasenose College (by 1894/95, £5)
• Christ Church (from 1895/96, £20)
• Corpus Christi College (from 1895/96, £5)
• Magdalen College (from 1895/96, £10)
  

Cambridge Colleges

• Caius College (by 1907/08, £10)
• Emmanuel College (by 1911/12, £5)
  
• King's College (from 1895/96, £10)

Other British Institutions

• Institute of Archaeology, Liverpool (1907/08, £1)
  
• Victoria University of Manchester (by 1909/10, £1.1.0 and increased £6.1.0 [1910/11]; £5 [1912/13, 1913/14, 1914/15, 1916/17, 1917/18])
• University College, Reading (by 1913/14, £1)
  

Canada

• McGill University, Montreal (from 1896/97, £5.5.0)

Information and chart revised 7 August 2008.

Asia Minor Exploration Fund: Funding

One of the constant refrains of the BSA Managing Committee in the early years concerned finance. Yet this is hardly surprising given the demands from other archaeological projects in the eastern Mediterranean. George Macmillan was Honorary Treasurer of the Asia Minor Exploration Fund (AMEF) and made constant appeals:

• 1882: £520 raised
• 1883: £300 spent on travels in Anatolia; further appeal for £500.
  
• 1890: appeal for £500 to cover the 1890 season
  
• 1891: appeal for £400 to cover the 1891 season
  
• 1893: £150 raised (of which £100 from the Royal Geographical Society)
  
• 1893: appeal for £2000 to excavate at Derbe or Lystra

The BSA students were often involved with the work of AMEF from its earliest years, notably David Hogarth, John A.R. Munro, and Vincent W. Yorke.

The appeal for funds took a nationalistic tone:

It would be little to the credit of England if want of funds should oblige Professor Ramsay to leave the completion of his task to foreign hands. (1890)

One might wish that a foreign nation had not stepped in to a field which, with more liberality on the part of Englishmen, could have been covered completely by our own explorers, but the work is so vast that in the interests of knowledge the application of foreign zeal and money is not altogether to be regretted. (1891)

Very much yet remains to be done, and if the work so well begun by a small band of Englishmen is not to be left unfinished or transferred to foreign hands, English liberality must supply the funds necessary for its continuance. (1893)

It is little wonder that the BSA was only raising some £500 a year when there were such competing demands on the same subscribers.

BSA and Anatolia: Colophon

Cecil Harcourt-Smith, in his last year of office as Director, joined the steam yacht Rona belonging to Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, a major donor to the BSA, in the early part of 1897. Clearly one of the objects was to identify a possible major site for excavation after the work at Phylakopi on Melos.

The cruise took Harcourt-Smith to Salonica and through the Aegean. He was particularly interested in the site of Colophon to the south of Smyrna. Hamdi Bey, Director of the Imperial Museums in Constantinople, was approached for a firman. However due to the outbreak of war in Thessaly and on Crete, the excavation never took place.

The American School also considered Colophon a suitable site to excavate though the work did not start until after the First World War in 1922 and quickly came to a halt due to events in Anatolia.

Donors to the BSA

The 'Rules and Regulations' of the BSA defined three different types of Subscribers. The first was defined as:

(1) Donors of £10 and upwards.

This was later changed to:

(1) Donors, other than Corporate Bodies, of £10 and upwards.

Donors included:

• Sir William Reynell Anson (1843-1914), Warden of All Souls, Oxford; vice-chancellor (1898); MP for Oxford University (£10, 1899/1900; £10, 1900/01; £10, 1901/02; £10, 1902/03; £10, 1904/05; £10, 1905/06; £10, 1906/07; £10, 1907/08; £10, 1908/09; £10, 1909/10; £10, 1910/11; £10, 1911/12; £10, 1912/13; £10, 1913/14)
• Colonel O. Chambers (£10, 1899/1900; £10, 1900/01)
• Lord Egerton of Tatton / Rt. Hon. Earl Egerton (Wilbraham Egerton) (1832-1909) (£10.10.0, 1895/96; £10.10.0, 1896/97; £10.10.0, 1897/98; £10.10.0, 1898/99; £10.10.0, 1899/1900; £10.10.0, 1900/01; £10.10.0, 1901/02; £10.10.0, 1902/03; £10.10.0, 1904/05; £10.10.0, 1905/06; £10.10.0, 1906/07)
• Sir Arthur J. Evans (1851-1941) (£10, 1894/95; £10, 1895/96; £10, 1896/97; £10, 1897/98; £10, 1898/9; £10, 1899/1900; £10, 1900/01; £10, 1901/02; £10, 1902/03; £10, 1904/05; £10, 1905/06; £10, 1906/07; £10, 1907/08; £10, 1908/09; £10, 1909/10; £10, 1910/11; £10, 1911/12; £10, 1912/13; £10, 1913/14; £10, 1914/15; £10, 1915/16; £10, 1916/17; £10, 1917/18)
• Douglas William Freshfield (1845-1934) (£10, 1895/96; £10, 1896/97; £10, 1897/98; £10, 1898/9; £10, 1899/1900; £10, 1900/01; £10, 1902/03; £10, 1904/05; £10, 1905/06; £10, 1906/07; £10, 1907/08; £10, 1908/09; £10, 1909/10; £10, 1910/11; £10, 1912/13; £10, 1913/14; £10, 1914/15; £10, 1915/16; £10, 1916/17; £10, 1917/18)
• Lord Hillingdon (Charles Henry Mills, first Baron Hillingdon [1830–1898]) (£10, 1895/96; £10, 1896/97; £10, 1897/98)
• Thomas Hodgkin (1831-1913) (£10, 1902/03; £10, 1904/05; £10, 1905/06; £10, 1906/07; £10, 1907/08; £10, 1908/09; £10, 1909/10; £10, 1910/11; £10, 1911/12; £10, 1912/13)
  
• Lady Howard de Walden (Lady Lucy Joan Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck) (d. 1899); widow of Charles Augustus Ellis, sixth Baron Howard de Walden and second Baron Seaford (1799–1868) (£20, 1897/98; £20, 1896/97; £20, 1898/9)
• Walter Leaf (1852-1927) (£100, 1894/95; £20, 1895/96; £20, 1896/97; £20, 1897/98; £20, 1898/9; £50, 1899/1900; £50, 1900/01; £20, 1901/02; £50, 1902/03; £50, 1904/05; £50, 1905/06; £50, 1906/07; £50, 1907/08; £50, 1908/09; £50, 1909/10; £50, 1910/11; £50, 1911/12; £50, 1912/13; £50, 1913/14; £50, 1914/15; £50, 1915/16; £50, 1916/17; £50, 1917/18)
• William Loring (1865-1915) (£15, 1899/1900; £10, 1900/01)
• Sir Thomas Lucas (1822-1902) (£10, 1895/96; £10.10.0, 1897/98; £10.10.0, 1898/9)
• George A. Macmillan (£10.10.0, 1894/95; £10.10.0, 1895/96; £10.10.0, 1896/97; £10.10.0, 1897/98; £20, 1898/9; £25, 1899/1900; £25, 1900/01; £25, 1901/02; £25, 1902/03; £50, 1904/05; £50, 1905/06; £50, 1906/07; £50, 1907/08; £50, 1908/09; £50, 1909/10; £50, 1910/11; £50, 1911/12; £50, 1912/13; £50, 1913/14; £50, 1914/15; £25, 1915/16; £25, 1916/17; £25, 1917/18)
• Macmillan & Co. (£20, 1895/96; £20, 1896/97; £20, 1897/98; £20, 1898/9)
• C.W. Mitchell (£10, 1895/96; £10, 1897/98£10, 1898/9; £10, 1899/1900; £10, 1900/01; £10, 1901/02; £10, 1902/03; )
  
• Ludwig Mond (1839-1909) (£100, 1895/96; £100, 1896/97; £100, 1897/98; £100, 1898/9; £100, 1899/1900; £100, 1900/01; £100, 1901/02; £100, 1902/03; £100, 1904/05; £100, 1905/06; £100, 1906/07; £100, 1907/08; £100, 1908/09)
• Walter Morrison (1836-1921); a founder of the Palestine Exploration Fund (£10, 1911/12; £10, 1912/13; £10, 1913/14; £10, 1914/15)
• Mrs J.W. Pease (£10.10.0, 1902/03)
  
• Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839-1898) (£50, 1895/96; £50, 1896/97; £50, 1897/98)
  
• Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema (1836-1912) (£20, 1895/96; £20, 1896/97; £20, 1897/98; £20, 1898/9; £20, 1899/1900)
• Mrs Hedwig Tod, Edinburgh (£10, 1904/05; £10, 1905/06; £10, 1906/07; £10, 1909/10; £10, 1910/11; £10, 1911/12; £10, 1912/13)
• Rev. Henry Fanshawe Tozer (1829-1916) (£10, 1894/95; £10, 1895/96; £10, 1896/97; £10, 1897/98; £10, 1898/9; £10, 1899/1900; £10, 1900/01; £10, 1901/02; £10, 1902/03; £10, 1904/05; £10, 1905/06; £10, 1906/07; £10, 1907/08; £10, 1908/09; £10, 1909/10; £10, 1910/11; £10, 1911/12; £10, 1912/13; £10, 1913/14; £10, 1914/15; £10, 1915/16)
• Sir Julius (Charles) Wernher (1850-1912) (£25, 1899/1900; £25, 1900/01; £25, 1901/02; £25, 1902/03; £25, 1904/05; £25, 1905/06; £25, 1906/07; £25, 1907/08; £25, 1908/09; £25, 1909/10; £25, 1910/11; £25, 1911/12)
  

This working list will be revised; 8 October 2008.

The BSA and Egypt: Naukratis Excavation Fund

Just over £187 was raised for the excavation of Naukratis in 1899 by David Hogarth. The main donor was the Society of Dilettanti with £100. The Fitzwilliam and Ashmolean Museums also supported the project (£15 and £10, respectively).

Private donors
£10

• Arthur J. Evans, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum
  
• C.E. Johnston (of Park House, Southall)
  
• Walter Leaf
  

£5

• Professor Ernest Gardner
• Professor Percy Gardner
• William Loring
• George A. Macmillan
• Rev. S.A. Thompson Yates
  

£3

• Douglas W. Freshfield
  

£2.2.0

• John L. Myres
• Francis C. Penrose
  

Herodes Britannicus: Funding Excavations in Laconia

The BSA struggled to raise money for its work. The £500 grant from the British government in effect covered the director's stipend. Special funds were created for specific projects, notably the Laconian Exploration Fund. George Macmillan, as chairman of the Managing Committee, had made an appeal in February 1906 for a sum 'not than £700 or £800'.

At the Annual Meeting of Subscribers on October 27, 1908. Lord Cromer, the president, commented:

Lastly, let me say something of the financial outlook. You may remember that, at a period before the Government had decided to make a grant of £500, for which we are all very grateful, Lord Sherborne advised those who were interested in the Institution to fall back on the generosity of some British Herodes Atticus. Well, gentlemen, during the course of last year a most welcome Herodes Britannicus vel Americanus appeared in the person of Mr. Astor, who gave the munificent and wholly unsolicited gift of £1,000 for the Spartan excavations. (Cheers)

William Waldorf Astor (1848-1919) was owner of Hever Castle in Kent (and former owner of Clivedon House in Buckinghamshire). He had become a British subject in 1899.

Image
The Eurotas valley from Mistra. © David Gill.

BSA Income (1894-1918)

Cecil Harcourt-Smith helped to transform the finances of the BSA through the introduction of the annual Government Grant (£500) and the growth of subscriptions. Investments also formed a steady stream of income (and increased during the First World War). Money given specifically for excavations changed from year to year.

Chart revised 7 August 2008.