John Lubbock

Have you ever heard of John Lubbock (1834-1913)?

It is amazing to think of the many different things he achieved in a variety of fields like politics, banking, archaeology, biology and, at the same time, remain practically unknown.

Lubbock was the son of a wealthy banker and a neighbour of Charles Darwin. He studied at the prestigious Eton College and at the age of 22 became a partner at his father´s bank.

In 1870, and in 1874, he was elected as a MP for Maidstone and had a distinguished political career: he limited the working hours for the working class; the Bank Holidays Act of 1871 established the first bank holidays in the United Kingdom; and the Ancient Monuments Act of 1882 recognized the need to protect the national heritage. Augustus Pitt Rivers, Lubbock´s father in law, was the first Inspector of Ancient Monuments (in 18 years he managed to catalog 43 monuments; nowadays there are more than 19 000).

Besides being a banker and a politician, Lubbock was also keen on archaeology: he invented the terms "Palaeolithic" and "Neolithic" to mean the Old and New Stone Ages and was a member of the British Museum. John Lubbock was also interested in the evolutionary theory and wrote many articles supporting Darwin´s ideas. 

He still had time for science and experimenting. As an amateur biologist he studied ants, bees and wasps. 

Let´s not forget John Lubbock! 



Lubbock´s Quotes: "What we see depends mainly on what we look for." 

"A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work". 

"The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn."

The  idea for this post came from Bill Bryson´s Em Casa. Bertrand editora 2011.(pages485-489)