Sir William Ridgeway, FBA FRAI (6 August 1853 – 12 August 1926) was an Anglo-Irish

classical scholar Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

and the

Disney Professor of Archaeology The Disney Professorship of Archaeology is an endowed chair in archaeology at the University of Cambridge. It was endowed by John Disney in 1851 with a donation of £1,000, followed by a further £2,500 bequest upon his death in 1857. Disney Pro ...

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Biography

Ridgeway was born 6 August 1853, at Ballydermot, King's County, Ireland, the son of Rev. John Henry Ridgeway and Marianne Ridgeway. He was a direct descendant of one of Cromwell's settlers in Ireland. He was educated at Portarlington School and Trinity College, Dublin, after which he studied at Peterhouse, Cambridge then

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of t ...

, completing the Classical

tripos At the University of Cambridge, a Tripos (, plural 'Triposes') is any of the examinations that qualify an undergraduate for a bachelor's degree or the courses taken by a student to prepare for these. For example, an undergraduate studying mathe ...

there in 1880. In 1883, Ridgeway was elected Professor of Greek at

Queen's College, Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh) is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one of ...

, then Disney Professor of Archaeology at Cambridge in 1892. He also held tenure as Gifford lecturer in Religion at

Aberdeen University , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...

from 1909 to 1911 from which was published ''The Evolution of Religions of Ancient Greece and Rome''. He contributed articles to the ''

Encyclopedia Biblica ''Encyclopaedia Biblica: A Critical Dictionary of the Literary, Political and Religion History, the Archeology, Geography and Natural History of the Bible'' (1899), edited by Thomas Kelly Cheyne and J. Sutherland Black, is a critical encyclopedi ...

'' (1903),

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...

(1911) and wrote ''The Origin of Metallic Currency and Weight Standards'' (1892), and ''The Early Age of Greece'' (1901) which were significant works in Archaeology and Anthropology. Ridgeway was President of the Royal Anthropological Institute 1908-1910 and was instrumental in the foundation of the Cambridge school of Anthropology. Ridgeway received an honorary

Doctorate of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Doctor ...

(D.Litt.) from the University of Dublin in June 1902. He was elected a Fellow of the British Association in 1904. For his research on horses he received in 1909 the Sc.D. of Cambridge. He was knighted in the 1919 Birthday Honours list. In 1880, Ridgeway married Lucinda Maria Kate Samuels in Rathdown, County Dublin. Their daughter Lucy Marion Ridgeway (1882–1958) married economist

John Archibald Venn John Archibald Venn (10 November 1883 – 15 March 1958) was a British economist. He was President of Queens' College, Cambridge, from 1932 until his death, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University 1941–1943, university archivist, and a ...

in 1906.

Selected publications

Articles

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Books

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Arms

References

External links

*
Ridgeway's correspondence and papers at NAHSTE'William Ridgeway's Two Models of Early Greece', Simon J. Cook, ''History of European Ideas'', 2014
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ridgeway, William 1853 births 1926 deaths British archaeologists British Anglicans Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Academics of University College Cork Knights Bachelor Disney Professors of Archaeology Academics of the University of Aberdeen Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Presidents of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland