Stephen Ranulph Kingdon Glanville, (26 April 1900 – 26 April 1956) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

and

egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...

. He was Edwards Professor of Egyptology at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

from 1935 to 1946. He was then Sir Herbert Thompson Professor of Egyptology at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

from 1946 until his death in 1956, and additionally Provost of

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...

from 1954.

Biography

S R K Glanville was born in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, the eldest son of Stephen James Glanville and Nannie Elizabeth (née Kingdon). He was first cousin to

Frank Kingdon-Ward Francis Kingdon-Ward, born Francis Kingdon Ward OBE, (6 November 1885 in Manchester – 8 April 1958) was an English botanist, explorer, plant collector and author. He published most of his books as Frank Kingdon-Ward and this hyphenated form ...

the explorer and botanist and also related to

William Kingdon Clifford William Kingdon Clifford (4 May 18453 March 1879) was an English mathematician and philosopher. Building on the work of Hermann Grassmann, he introduced what is now termed geometric algebra, a special case of the Clifford algebra named in his ...

the mathematician. He was educated at

Marlborough Marlborough may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Marlborough, Wiltshire, England ** Marlborough College, public school * Marlborough School, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England * The Marlborough Science Academy in Hertfordshire, England Austral ...

and at

Lincoln College, Oxford Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, the ...

, where he read Modern History. He gained his BA in 1922 and his MA in 1926. He worked for the Egyptian Government Service in 1922 before joining the

Egypt Exploration Society The Egypt Exploration Society (EES) is a British non-profit organization. The society was founded in 1882 by Amelia Edwards and Reginald Stuart Poole in order to examine and excavate in the areas of Egypt and Sudan. The intent was to study and ana ...

expedition to

el-Amarna Amarna (; ar, العمارنة, al-ʿamārnah) is an extensive Egyptian archaeological site containing the remains of what was the capital city of the late Eighteenth Dynasty. The city was established in 1346 BC, built at the direction of the Ph ...

in 1923. Glanville studied

Egyptology Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...

under

Francis Llewellyn Griffith Francis Llewellyn Griffith (27 May 1862 – 14 March 1934) was an eminent British Egyptologist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Early life and education F. Ll. Griffith was born in Brighton on 27 May 1862 where his father, Rev. Dr. ...

and was appointed Assistant in the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

in 1924. Glanville excavated again at el-Amarna in 1925, and at

Armant Armant ( ar, أرْمَنْت; egy, jwn.w-n-mnṯ.w or ''jwn.w-šmꜥ.w''; Bohairic: ; Sahidic: ), also known as Hermonthis ( grc, Ἕρμωνθις), is a town located about south of Thebes. It was an important Middle Kingdom town, which was ...

in 1928. In 1925 he married Ethel Mary Chubb. He was Laycock Student of Egyptology at

Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms w ...

, between 1929-1935 and Reader in Egyptology from 1933 to 1935. Sir

Flinders Petrie Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Flinders Petrie, was a British Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. He held the first chair of Egypt ...

having retired, Glanville was appointed

Edwards Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology The Edwards Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology is a university professorial chair held at University College London. History The chair was founded on the death of Amelia Edwards of the Egyptian Exploration Fund in 1892, who bequeath ...

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

in 1935, holding the chair until 1946. The first volume of his catalogue of demotic papyri in the British museum was published in 1939 and the last volume only a fortnight before his death. Though primarily a demotist, he was also a first class archaeologist with a rare feeling for antiquities.

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are a series of lectures on a single topic each, which have been held at the Royal Institution in London each year since 1825, missing 1939–1942 because of the Second World War. The lectures present sci ...

for children in 1929-30 theme "How things were done in ancient Egypt". Elaborated into a book, ''Daily life in ancient Egypt''. 1933 - 1935 he was a reader in Egyptology in the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. In 1935 elected Edwards Professor of Egyptology at

University College In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies ...

, and a fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

in 1946. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Glanville served with the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

(Air Staff). He reached the rank of

Wing Commander Wing commander (Wg Cdr in the RAF, the IAF, and the PAF, WGCDR in the RNZAF and RAAF, formerly sometimes W/C in all services) is a senior commissioned rank in the British Royal Air Force and air forces of many countries which have historical ...

, and was awarded the

M.B.E. Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

and Czechoslovak, Dutch, and Yugoslav orders. Returning to academic life, Glanville was a fellow, 1946–54. In 1954, he "became the first Oxford man to become provost of

, a position to which he was unanimously elected in 1954.".Thompson, Laura. ''Agatha Christie: An English Mystery''. Headline Review (London, 2008), p. 330 Moreover, he was Sir Herbert Thompson Professor of Egyptology at the

from 1946 until his death in Cambridge on his 56th birthday, 26 April 1956. He was Honorary Secretary, 1928–31 and 1933–6, and Chairman of Committee, 1951–6, of the Egypt Exploration Society. The Herbert Thompson chair of Egyptology was created in 1946 particularly to cover Demotic and Coptic studies for which SRKG had established an unequalled reputation. He was therefore the obvious choice for the first holder. He was editor of ''The Legacy of Egypt'', one of the Clarendon "Legacy" series, and besides his "Growth and Nature of Egyptology" which was published in 1947, wrote a large number of essays and papers. He died in

Cambridge, England Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge became ...

, on his 56th birthday, and is buried in Grantchester Parish Churchyard.

Relationship with the Mallowans

Glanville was a close friend of the archaeologist

Max Mallowan Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan (6 May 1904 – 19 August 1978) was a prominent British archaeologist, specialising in ancient Middle Eastern history. He was the second husband of Dame Agatha Christie. Life and work Born Edgar Mallowan in Wands ...

and his wife

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...

. He was in service with Mallowan during WWII. Glanville was the source and inspiration for at least two of Christie's works, the historic mystery''

Death Comes as the End ''Death Comes as the End'' is a historical mystery novel by Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in October 1944 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in March of the following year.Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier ...

'', and a play, ''

Akhnaton Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Echnaton, Akhenaton, ( egy, ꜣḫ-n-jtn ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning "Effective for the Aten"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dy ...

''. Both of these works are set in ancient Egypt, and Christie herself acknowledged in her

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

that neither of these works would have been possible without Glanville.

Publications

This is by no means a complete list. *1930 Daily Life in Ancient Egypt *1933 The Egyptians, A&C Black *1939 Catalogue of the demotic papyri in the British Museum. Vol 1. *1942 The Legacy of Egypt, Oxford, Clarendon Press, Legacy series *1947 Growth and nature of Egyptology *1956 Catalogue of the demotic papyri in the British Museum. Vol 2. Publication date unknown: Glanville S.R.K. and Faulkner, R. O., Catalogue of Egyptian Antiquities in The British Museum II: Wooden Model Boats. Trustees of The British Museum, London 1972.

References

Sources

*Obituary in the

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

. 28.04.1956 Prof. S.R.K. Glanville. Antiquities of Egypt *Also see below external links.

External links

University of Cambridge entry for SRKG.
*https://web.archive.org/web/20040827181635/http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/archive.asp?fellowsID=1667 {{DEFAULTSORT:Glanville, Stephen 1900 births 1956 deaths People from Westminster English Egyptologists Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford Members of the Order of the British Empire Royal Air Force officers Employees of the British Museum Academics of University College London Provosts of King's College, Cambridge Professors of the University of Cambridge