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- Rev Greville John Chester
- Also known as
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Rev Greville John Chester
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primary name: Chester, Greville John
- Details
- individual; author/poet; cleric/religious official; collector; British; Male
- Life dates
- 25 Oct 1830-23 May 1892
- Address
- 9 Pall Mall East, London (1875).
1 Bloomsbury Court, London WC (1882)
2 Russell Chambers, Bury Street, London WC (1891).
- Biography
- British clergyman, collector and author, born in Denton, Norfolk, the youngest son of William Chester and Elizabeth Wilson. Privately educated and then took a degree at Balliol College, Oxford. Served as curate at Crayke, Yorkshire; later at Farndish. Next became incumbent of St. Jude's, Moorfield, Sheffield, but was forced to retire owing to ill-health in 1865. Wintered in Egypt for many years and collected many antiquities in his almost annual travels, including some major pieces. Acquired objects not only for the British Museum but also the Ashmolean Museum (q.v.), Fitzwilliam Museum (q.v.) and Victoria & Albert Museum (q.v.). A personal friend of Sir William Flinders Petrie (q.v.). Collaborated with the Palestine Exploration Fund (q.v.), and a vocal player in the move of the Ashmolean Museum from Broad Street to its present site on Beaumont Street. Author of numerous scholarly articles and sermons. Died of angina in London and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery. His executor was Felix Slade (q.v.).
Chester gave a small group of archaeological items from the Caribbean to the BM. Over 600 other objects that he owned came via other routes, many being given by A W Franks.
- Bibliography
- Seidmann G. 2006, 'The Rev. Greville John Chester and ‘The Ashmolean Museum as a Home for Archaeology in Oxford’', Bulletin for the History of Archaeology 16(1), 27-33 (DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/bha.16104)
[http://archaeologybulletin.org/article/view/bha.16104]
Seidmann G. 2006, 'Forgotten pioneers of archaeology in Victorian Oxford: the Rev. Greville John Chester (1830-1892)', Oxoniensia LXXI, 145-50
Seidmann S. 2006, 'Thunder, lightning and a ray of sunshine. The Rev. Greville John Chester addresses his congregation', Romulus 2006, 30-31.
https://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/files/attachments/Romulus2006.pdfCached
Seidmann G. 2007, 'The Rev. Greville Chester aims to be the new perpetuum mobie', Romulus 2007, 28-29.
https://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/files/attachments/Romulus2007.pdf