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.