Alice Lady Avebury

Abstract

THE death of Alice Lady Avebury at High Elms, Downe, Kent, on March 11, at the age of eighty-five, removed an important link between the two leading prehistorians of the Victorian period. She was the daughter of General Pitt-Rivers and the wife of the first Lord Avebury. From her father she inherited much—his clear intellect, his orderly ways and his imperious manner. She was Lord Avebury's second wife, being married to him in 1884 while he was still Sir John Lubbock, member of Parliament, banker, author of “Prehistoric Times” and the father of Bank Holidays. The Lubbock home, at High Elms, was a centre where the celebrated men of science of the Victorian period came to spend week-ends. Lady Avebury was an ideal hostess, and around her many new friendships were formed. She was a woman of wit and of beauty, never afraid to give utterance to what she really thought and believed. She was on the most friendly terms with the Darwin family at Down House, and when Darwin's home passed into the custody of the British Association she continued her association with that remarkable place. She welcomed the transfer of the historic Lubbock home of High Elms with its park and woods to London's Green Belt ; indeed, she took the initiative in this transfer. Her daughter, the Hon. Mrs. Ursula Grant Duff, continues the Avebury interest in social science.