Mary Hamilton and the BSA

Mary Hamilton (1881-1962) was educated at St Andrews. Her father, Rev. William Hamilton, was the minister of the Trinity Evangelical Union Church in Dundee. (The church had been opened by James Morison [1816-93], founder of the Evangelical Union, in December 1877.) She held a fellowship from the Carnegie Trust (working on incubation) and was subsequently admitted to the BSA for the sessions 1905/06 and 1906/07. In Athens she met Guy Dickins (1881-1916) and they were married, c. 1909. Mary continued to use the address of her parents in Dundee.

Dickins was appointed lecturer in classical archaeology at Oxford in 1914 and they moved to 12 Holywell Street. Dickins was commissioned in November 1914 (Kings Royal Rifle Corps) and served in France; he died of wounds received on the Somme in 1916. Mary continued living at Holywell Street until 1917 when she moved to Bevington Road in Oxford. In 1925 she returned to Scotland, Callendar in Perthshire. She subsequently married Lacey Davis Caskey (1880-1944), curator of Classical Art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and her contemporary in Athens at the American School (ASCSA); they lived in Wellesley, Mass.

Mary returned to Callendar in 1950.

Bibliography
Hamilton, M. 1906. Incubation, or, the cure of disease in pagan temples and Christian churches. London: W.C. Henderson & Son.
—. 1906/7. "The pagan element in the names of saints." Annual of the British School at Athens 13: 348–56.
—. 1910. Greek saints and their festivals. London: W. Blackwood & Sons.

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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.

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