Sifting the Soil of Greece: Student Biographies

Sifting the Soil of Greece contains three sets of short biographies:

• i. Trustees of the British School at Athens
• ii. Members of the Managing Committee of the British School at Athens
• iii. Directors and students at the British School at Athens

Edwin Freshfield and Sidney Barnsley

Sidney Howard Barnsley (1865-1926) was admitted to the BSA in 1887/88 as an architectural student of the Royal Academy. He worked on Byzantine architecture in Salonica and Mount Athos as part of a project directed by Dr Edwin Freshfield, a trustee of the BSA.

Freshfield lived at Lower Kingswood in Surrey and commissioned Barnsley to design a new church, 'The Wisdom of God', in a Byzantine style.

The London Secretary (1886-1920)

The first Honorary Secretary of the BSA was George Augustin Macmillan (1855-1936) who served for ten years (1886-97). He held this alongside the same position for the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies. (He subsequently became a Trustee in 1900).

Macmillan was replaced by William Loring (1865-1915), a former student of the School (Cambridge Studentship, Craven Studentship), a member of the Managing Committee, a former Fellow of King's College, Cambridge (1891-97), and Examiner for the Board of Education (1894-1903). During his leave of absence serving in the Boer War (1899-1901; corporal, 19th [Lothians and Berwickshire] Company, Imperial Yeomanry, 1900-1 (D.C.M.); Lieutenant in the Scottish Horse, 1901-2), Macmillan deputised for him. Loring was also the Honorary Secretary for the British School at Rome. He served as Secretary for the BSA until 1903 when he was appointed Director of Education under the West Riding County Council (1903-5).

Loring's place was taken by John ff. Baker Penoyre (1870-1954) who had been a student at Keble College, Oxford, an assistant master at Chigwell School (1896-1900), and had then been admitted to the BSA in 1900/01; he also acted as an extension lecturer on classical art and archaeology at Oxford University. The position of Secretary also attracted a salary of £40 per year. Like Loring he acted as Secretary to the British School at Rome (1904-12). In 1904 he was appointed Secretary for the Hellenic Society at £80 per year (where he also served as Librarian at £60 per year). In 1906/07, 1907/08 Penoyre was granted a year's leave of absence for 'travel and research', and was re-admitted to the BSA. He was replaced by Katherine Raleigh (the translator of The Gods of Olympus [1892]).

From 1911 (to 1920) Caroline Amy Hutton, another former student (1896/97), served as acting Honorary Secretary. She had been serving as joint editor of the Annual from 1906.

BSA Managing Committee (1886-1918)

The original committee consisted of the following 'five members ... appointed by the general body of subscribers':

• Professor Percy Gardner (1846-1937)
• John Gennadius (the Greek Minister in London)
• Professor Richard Claverhouse Jebb (1841-1905)
• Sir Frederic Leighton (1830-96)
  
• Mr John Edwin Sandys (1844-1922)

There were also:

• The Trustees
• The Treasurer
• The Honorary Secretary
• 'members to be nominated by each corporate body subscribing not less than £50 per annum towards the maintenance of the School' (David Binning Monro (1836-1905), Oxford; Sidney Colvin (1845-1927), Hellenic Society)
  

Subsequently the Managing Committee consisted of the following elements:

Appointed by the University of Oxford:

• David Binning Monro (1836-1905), Provost of Oriel College. (1895/96, 1896/97, 1897/98, 1898/99, 1900/01, 1901/02, 1903/04, 1904/05)
• Professor Percy Gardner (1846-1937). (1905/06, 1909/10, 1910/11, 1911/12, 1912/13, 1913/14, 1914/15, 1916/17, 1917/18)

Appointed by the University of Cambridge (from 1896):

• Professor (Sir) William Ridgeway (1858-1926). (1896/97, 1897/98, 1898/99, 1900/01, 1901/02, 1903/04).
• Professor (Sir) John Edwin Sandys (1844-1922). (1904/05, 1905/06, 1909/10, 1910/11, 1911/12, 1912/13, 1913/14, 1914/15, 1915/16, 1916/17, 1917/18).
  

Appointed by the Hellenic Society:

• (Sir) Sidney Colvin (1845-1927). (1895/96, 1896/97, 1897/98, 1898/99, 1899/1900, 1900/01, 1901/02, 1903/04, 1904/05, 1905/06).
• Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928). (1909/10, 1910/11, 1911/12, 1912/13, 1913/14, 1914/15, 1915/16, 1916/17, 1917/18).
  

Appointed by the subscribers (former Directors):

• Francis Cranmer Penrose (1817-1903). Director: 1886/87. (1895/96, 1896/97, 1897/98, 1898/99, 1899/1900, 1900/01, 1901/02).
• Ernest Arthur Gardner (1862-1939). Student: 1886/87; Director: 1887-1895. (1897/98, replacing Bent; 1898/99, 1899/1900, 1900/01, 1901/02, 1903/04, 1904/05, 1905/06, 1909/10, 1910/11, 1911/12, 1912/13, 1913/14, 1914/15, 1915/16, 1916/17, 1917/18).
• (Sir) Cecil Harcourt Smith (1859-1944). Director: 1895-97. (1897/98, 1898/99, 1899/1900, 1900/01, 1901/02, 1903/04, 1904/05, 1905/06, 1909/10, 1910/11, 1911/12, 1912/13, 1913/14, 1914/15, 1915/16, 1916/17, 1917/18).
• David George Hogarth (1862-1927). Student: 1886/87; Director: 1897-1900. (1896/97, 1900/01, 1901/02, 1903/04, 1904/05, 1905/06, 1909/10, 1910/11, 1911/12, 1912/13, 1913/14, 1914/15, 1915/16, 1916/17, 1917/18).
• Professor Robert Carr Bosanquet (1871-1935). Student: 1892/93, 1894-97; Assistant Director: 1899/1900; Director: 1900-06. (1909/10, 1910/11, 1911/12, 1912/13, 1913/14, 1914/15, 1915/16, 1916/17, 1917/18).
• Richard Macgillivray Dawkins (1871-1955). Student: 1902-05; Director: 1906-14. (1914/15, 1915/16, 1916/17, 1917/18).

Appointed by the subscribers (excluding former Directors):

• Professor (Sir) Thomas Clifford Allbutt (1836-1925), MD, FRS. (1895/96)
• James Theodore Bent (1852-97). (1896/97)
• (Sir) Reginald Theodore Blomfield (1856-1942). (1903/04, 1904/05, 1905/06)
• John Percival Droop (1882-1963). Student: 1905-09, 1910/11, 1912-14. (1916/17, 1917/18)
• Sir Francis Elliot, KCMG. (1917/18)
  
• (Sir) Arthur John Evans (1851-1941). (1900/01, 1901/02, 1903/04, 1904/05, 1905/06, 1909/10, 1910/11, 1911/12, 1912/13, 1913/14, 1914/15, 1915/16, 1916/17, 1917/18)
• Theodore Fyfe (1875-1945). Student: 1899/1900. (1909/10, 1910/11, 1911/12, 1912/13, 1913/14)
• Percy Gardner (1846-1937). (1900/01, 1901/02, 1903/04, 1904/05)
• Walter Sykes George (1881-1962). Student: 1906/07, 1908-10, 1912/13. (1914/15)
• Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928). (1895/96, 1896/97, 1897/98, 1898/99, 1899/1900, 1900/01, 1901/02, 1903/04, 1904/05, 1905/06)
• Francis John Haverfield (1860-1919). (1900/01, 1901/02)
• Caroline Amy Hutton (c. 1861-1931). Student: 1896/97. (1909/10, 1910/11, 1911/12)
• Harry Herbert Jewell (1882-1974). Student: 1909/10. (1915/16)
• William Loring (1865-1915). Student: 1889-93. (1895/96, 1896/97, 1905/06, 1909/10)
• George Augustin Macmillan (1855-1936). London secretary of the BSA 1886-98. (1897/98, 1898/99, 1899/1900)
  
• Robert John Grote Mayor (1869-1947). Student: 1892/93. (1903/04, 1904/05, 1905/06, 1909/10, 1910/11, 1911/12)
  
• Professor (Sir) John Linton Myres (1869-1954). Student: 1892-95. (1895/96, 1896/97, 1897/98, 1898/99, 1899/1900, 1900/01, 1901/02, 1903/04, 1904/05, 1905/06, 1909/10, 1910/11, 1911/12, 1912/13, 1913/14, 1914/15, 1915/16, 1916/17, 1917/18)
• Professor Henry Francis Pelham (1846-1907). (1895/96, 1896/97, 1897/98, 1898/99, 1899/1900, 1900/01, 1901/02, 1903/04)
• Professor James Smith Reid (1846-1926). (1900/01, 1901/02, 1903/04, 1904/05, 1905/06, 1909/10)
  
• (Sir) John Edwin Sandys (1844-1922). (1895/96, 1896/97, 1897/98, 1898/99, 1899/1900)
• Marcus Niebuhr Tod (1878-1974). Student: 1901/02; Assistant Director: 1902-04. (1909/10, 1910/11, 1911/12, 1912/13, 1913/14, 1914/15, 1915/16, 1916/17, 1917/18)
• Alan John Bayard Wace (1879-1957). Student: 1902-11; Director: 1914-23. (1910/11, 1911/12, 1912/13, 1913/14)
• Professor (Sir) Charles Waldstein (Walston) (1856-1927). (1895/96, 1896/97, 1897/98, 1898/99, 1899/1900, 1900/01, 1901/02, 1903/04, 1904/05, 1905/06, 1909/10, 1910/11, 1911/12, 1912/13, 1913/14, 1914/15, 1915/16, 1916/17, 1917/18)
• Leonard Whibley (1863-1941). (1910/11, 1911/12, 1912/13, 1913/14, 1914/15, 1915/16, 1916/17, 1917/18)
• Vincent Yorke. (1904/05)
• (Sir) Alfred Eckhard Zimmern (1879-1957). (1912/13, 1913/14, 1914/15, 1915/16, 1916/17, 1917/18)

Ex officio joint editor of the Annual:

• Caroline Amy Hutton (c. 1861-1931). (1912/13, 1913/14, 1914/15, 1915/16)

Rules and Regulations (1895/96):

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.
XIII. The Managing Committee shall consist of the following:-
(1) The Trustees of the School.
(2) The Treasurer and Secretary of the School.
(3) Nine Members elected by the Subscribers at the annual meetings. Of these, three shall retire in each year, at first by lot, afterwards by rotation. Members retiring are eligible for re-election.
(4) The members nominated by corporate bodies under Article VI.

Amendment (by 1903/04):

(3) Twelve Members elected by the Subscribers at the annual meetings. Of these, four shall retire in each year, at first by lot, afterwards by rotation. Members retiring are eligible for re-election.

This is a working page and will be updated.

Cambridge and the Managing Committee

Cambridge was well represented on the Managing Committee. Professor Percy Gardner (1846-1937) was a member of the first committee: at the time he was holding the Disney chair in Archaeology (1880-87). (He was elected to the Lincoln and Merton chair in Classical Archaeology at Oxford in 1887.) This was not a demanding position. He recalled:

Though technically a Professorship, the Disney post was in fact only a lectureship, involving no residence, but only the delivery of six lectures in the year. These lectures I could easily arrange to give in time of vacation from the [British] Museum: so the Trustees allowed me to keep my post, thinking it desirable to establish a fresh line of communication between the Universities and the Museum.

(Autobiographica, 52)

A significant Cambridge influence on the Managing Committee was Richard Claverhouse Jebb (1841-1905) who was on the original Managing Committee and then a Trustee. He returned to Cambridge in 1889 as holder of the Regius chair of Greek. John Edwin Sandys (1844-1922) was also on the original committee with Jebb and subsequently the University of Cambridge nominee (replacing Ridgeway in 1904/05). Sandys was elected a Fellow of St John's College in 1867: he also served as the university's public orator (1876-1919).

James Smith Reid (1846-1926) was elected a Fellow of Christ's College in 1869 (until his marriage in 1872), and subsequently a Fellow at Gonville & Caius College (from 1878). He held the chair of Ancient History from 1899 (until 1925). His wife, Ruth, was a sister of Ernest and Percy Gardner. Reid's sister, Agnes, married Percy Gardner (who was Reid's exact contemporary at the City of London School).

Charles Waldstein (later Sir Charles Walston) (1856-1927) had moved to Cambridge as a lecturer in 1880. He was Reader in Classical Archaeology (1883-1907). (His successor was A.B. Cook [1868-1952]). Waldstein simultaneously served as Director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (1888-92) during which time he excavated at the Argive Heraion. He also held the Slade chair of Art in Cambridge (1895-1901, 1904-11).

Leonard Whibley (1863-1941) was elected to a fellowship at Pembroke College in 1889. In addition he was university lecturer in Ancient History (1899-1910).

William Ridgeway was appointed to the Disney chair in 1892. He was the first nominee of the University of Cambridge on the Managing Committee (from 1896). His position in Cambridge was strengthened in 1907 by his appointment to the Brereton Readership in classics. He was particularly influential on Cambridge classical archaeology with many of his students going out to Athens.

One of the longest standing members of the Managing Committee (latterly as nominee of the Hellenic Socity) was Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928). She was a research fellow at Newnham College from 1898 and strongly encouraged female students to travel to Greece as part of their studies.

Charles Waring: BSA Trustee

Charles Waring (c. 1827-1887) was born in Eccleshall, Yorkshire. He had at least two brothers, William (born c. 1821) and Henry (born c. 1823). By 1841 Charles was living in Micklegate, York and describing himself as a 'civil engineer'. The brothers formed a company (Waring Brothers) working on railway contracts.

In 1853 Messrs Waring Brothers and Shaw were working in the Central Peninsular Railway Company in Portugal. The contract was worth £800,000 for the 'entire execution of the works, and for furnishing the rolling stock' (Daily News, November 12, 1858).

Among the other projects were Dorset Central (1858), Ceylon (1859), the Pernambuco, Recife and San Francisco Railway (1860), Sicily (1862), the East Indian Railway (1862), The Bristol Port Railway (1863), the Honduras Railway (1870), and the Uruguay Central Railway (1871). In the 1860s Waring Brothers worked on several British projects including the Midland Railway, though this contract was sold to Joseph Firbank (1819-86), and Kensington alongside (Sir) John Kelk (1816-86) and Thomas Andrew Walker (1828-89). They were contractors for the 'earth and brickworks' for the London terminus station at St Pancras (1868). Waring's obituary noted:

With the exception of the late Mr. Brassey, Waring Brothers have probably built more railroads in foreign countries, especially in South America and Transylvania, than any other firm of contractors, whether British or foreign.

Pall Mall Gazette, September 1, 1887

Waring wrote Brazil and her railways (Montreal: Gazette, 1883), State purchase of railways (London: Chapman and Hall, 1887).

Waring was elected Liberal MP for Poole in 1865 and 1868. However in May 1874 there was a petition served against him relating to several charges including bribery: he was disqualified and unable to stand in the 1874 election. He was selected as the Liberal candidate for Poole in the 1885 election.

Waring was married to Eliza and he had a son George. Apart from his London home in Grosvenor Gardens, Waring rented Wycombe Abbey from Charles Robert Carrington, marquess of Lincolnshire (1843–1928), who had been appointed governor of New South Wales in 1885. Waring, who had been suffering from 'an affliction of the heart', died at Wycombe Abbey on 26 August 1887. He left an estate of £552,270 ('There are no benefactions to charities').

Honorary Treasurers of the BSA

The founding Honorary Treasurer for the BSA was Walter Leaf (1852-1927), a banker in the City of London. He resigned in 1906 to become a Trustee in place of Sir Richard Jebb who died in December 1905.

Leaf's place was taken by Vincent W. Yorke (1869-1957), a former student of the BSA (1892/93, 1893/94), a director of National Provident Institution, and subsequently chairman of the Mexican Railway Ltd. Yorke served as treasurer until 1955.

Both Leaf and Yorke were directors of the London & Westminster Bank (elected 1891 and 1903, respectively).