Robert Carr Bosanquet
Encyclopedia
Robert Carr Bosanquet was a British archaeologist, operating in the Aegean and Britain and teaching at the University of Liverpool
from 1906 to 1920 as the first holder of the Chair of Classical Archaeology there .
Admitted in 1892 as a student at the British School at Athens
– thus an approximate contemporary of John Linton Myres - he was among the first to lead excavations at the Minoan seaside town of Palekastro
on Crete, from 1902-05. He also served as Assistant Director and then Director, from 1899-1906, of the British School, during one of its productive periods as a research centre. He ran other important excavations on newly-independent Crete, inland at Praisos (1901-02) and initiated the School’s major campaigns at the city of Sparta on the Greek mainland before he went to Liverpool ,
Professor Bosanquet’s first Romano-British excavations were as a young man, at the fort of Housesteads on Hadrian’s Wall in 1898, arguably better conceptualised, extensive enough and very well published, compared to what had gone before. As part of Liverpool’s contribution to then-new Age of the Excavation Committee in Britain that ran from c1890 (Silchester) to the arrival of full-time professional archaeological units by the early 1970s, Bosanquet organised Roman military site fieldwork for the short-lived Committee for Excavation and Research in Wales and the Marches, alongside his Liverpool colleague Prof John Myres, at Caerleon
and Caersws. This work helped set the research agenda for much of the following century . He was a founder-Commissioner of the Welsh archaeological recording body the Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Wales, running alongside his Welsh fieldwork of 1908-09, helping to visit and synthesise the archaeology of many counties through the Commission’s Inventories and developing an interest in hillfort archaeology. [Mortimer Wheeler], who knew him and was in a sense Bosanquet’s successor in Wales, situated his own early excavations ‘in direct line of descent from those instituted by him and the Liverpool Committee‘ .
After exhausting wartime service in hospital organisation and relief work in Albania, Corfu and Salonica, 1915-17, Bosanquet soon after retired from teaching at Liverpool. In his retirement in northern England (Northumbria), at the family home at Rock, he became a respected local archaeologist, but published little of his great store of knowledge on the nature and date of Roman imports north of the frontiers in Britain, Holland, Germany and Denmark. In retirement, he had written to his son Charles in 1927: ‘That the attraction of this place and its tradition is strong, is proved by the curious way in which, for three generations, we have given up very different occupations in order to settle here; but I think that R.W.B. the parson, C.B. P.B. the social reformer and R.C.B. the archaeologist, would have done better work here if they had spent more of their lives in the North, and had a business training into the bargain …’,. His later obituaries – he died in 1935 – focus chiefly on his character and on his pre- and post-Liverpool activities .
and his wife Lucy, daughter of Sarah and Alfred Fox
of Falmouth. They had five children:
University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool is a teaching and research university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration. Founded in 1881 , it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic...
from 1906 to 1920 as the first holder of the Chair of Classical Archaeology there .
Admitted in 1892 as a student at the British School at Athens
British School at Athens
The British School at Athens is one of the 17 Foreign Archaeological Institutes in Athens, Greece.-General information:The School was founded in 1886 as the fourth such institution in Greece...
– thus an approximate contemporary of John Linton Myres - he was among the first to lead excavations at the Minoan seaside town of Palekastro
Palekastro
Palekastro is a small village at the east end of the Mediterranean island Crete....
on Crete, from 1902-05. He also served as Assistant Director and then Director, from 1899-1906, of the British School, during one of its productive periods as a research centre. He ran other important excavations on newly-independent Crete, inland at Praisos (1901-02) and initiated the School’s major campaigns at the city of Sparta on the Greek mainland before he went to Liverpool ,
Professor Bosanquet’s first Romano-British excavations were as a young man, at the fort of Housesteads on Hadrian’s Wall in 1898, arguably better conceptualised, extensive enough and very well published, compared to what had gone before. As part of Liverpool’s contribution to then-new Age of the Excavation Committee in Britain that ran from c1890 (Silchester) to the arrival of full-time professional archaeological units by the early 1970s, Bosanquet organised Roman military site fieldwork for the short-lived Committee for Excavation and Research in Wales and the Marches, alongside his Liverpool colleague Prof John Myres, at Caerleon
Caerleon
Caerleon is a suburban village and community, situated on the River Usk in the northern outskirts of the city of Newport, South Wales. Caerleon is a site of archaeological importance, being the site of a notable Roman legionary fortress, Isca Augusta, and an Iron Age hill fort...
and Caersws. This work helped set the research agenda for much of the following century . He was a founder-Commissioner of the Welsh archaeological recording body the Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Wales, running alongside his Welsh fieldwork of 1908-09, helping to visit and synthesise the archaeology of many counties through the Commission’s Inventories and developing an interest in hillfort archaeology. [Mortimer Wheeler], who knew him and was in a sense Bosanquet’s successor in Wales, situated his own early excavations ‘in direct line of descent from those instituted by him and the Liverpool Committee‘ .
After exhausting wartime service in hospital organisation and relief work in Albania, Corfu and Salonica, 1915-17, Bosanquet soon after retired from teaching at Liverpool. In his retirement in northern England (Northumbria), at the family home at Rock, he became a respected local archaeologist, but published little of his great store of knowledge on the nature and date of Roman imports north of the frontiers in Britain, Holland, Germany and Denmark. In retirement, he had written to his son Charles in 1927: ‘That the attraction of this place and its tradition is strong, is proved by the curious way in which, for three generations, we have given up very different occupations in order to settle here; but I think that R.W.B. the parson, C.B. P.B. the social reformer and R.C.B. the archaeologist, would have done better work here if they had spent more of their lives in the North, and had a business training into the bargain …’,. His later obituaries – he died in 1935 – focus chiefly on his character and on his pre- and post-Liverpool activities .
Marriage and Family
He married Ellen Sophia Hodgkin (1875–1965), daughter of Thomas Hodgkin (historian)Thomas Hodgkin (historian)
Thomas Hodgkin , British historian, son of John Hodgkin , barrister and Quaker minister, and Elizabeth Howard ....
and his wife Lucy, daughter of Sarah and Alfred Fox
Alfred Fox
Alfred Fox, of Falmouth, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, was owner and developer of Glendurgan Garden, now a National Trust property. He was a member of the Quaker Fox family of Falmouth.-Business interests:...
of Falmouth. They had five children:
- Charles (born 1903), married Barbara Schiefflin in 1931
- Violet (born 1907) married John Pumphrey in 1931
- Diana (born 1909) married Henry Hardman in 1937
- Lucy (born 1911) married Michael Gresford Jones in 1933
- David (born 1916) married Camilla Ricardo in 1941