SIR ARTHUR EVANS Family background Evans was born inNash Mills,England, the oldest and first child ofJohn Evans and Harriet Ann Dickinson, the daughter of John's employer, inventor and founder of Messrs John Dickinson, a paper mill. Harriet was John's first cousin on his mother's side. John, descendant of a male line that was both educated and kept up a tradition of being intellectually active, was nevertheless undistinguished by either wealth or aristocratic connection. Starting work at the family business in lieu of going to college in 1840, he was made a full partner in 1851 after his marriage. [1] Profits from the mill would eventually fund Arthur's excavations and restorations at Knossos and resulting publications. While maintaining his status as a chief officer in the company, John became distinguished forhis quasi-professional pursuits in numismatics, geology and archaeology. His intere st in geology came from an assignment by the company to scientifically study water resources in the area. Streams are often a good source for stone-age artifacts. John had already profited from the education he did have. He knew Latin and could and did quote the authors. In 1859 he conducted a geological survey of theSomme ValleywithJoseph Prestwich and began to collect and study flint implements. He eventually published works on those topics. He joined the Royal Society in 1864, serving as various officers, won the Lyell Medal, and was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1892. Meanwhile Harriet had a child every year or every other year until she died in 1858 when Arthur was 7. He had acquired two brothers, Norman and Lewis and two sisters, remaining on excellent terms with all of them all of his life. He was raised by a stepmother, Fanny, with whom he also got along very well. She had no children of her own. Later in life, after the death of Fanny and John's remarriage, they were joined by a half-sister ( Joan) by John's third wife, a classical scholar. John was 70. By the time of John's death in 1908 at 85 and inheritance by Arthur of a share in the wealth the major work on Knossos had already been done mainly with funds other than those from the business. However, Arthur had enjoyed the close support and assistance of his father, who contributed heavily. Education Arthur was given every advantage of education. After a childhood stay at Callipers Preparatory School (no longer extant) he attended Harrow School, becoming co-editor ofThe Harrovian in his last year, 1869/70. [2] At Harrow he was friends especially with Francis Maitland Balfour, with whom he later hiked overLaplandandFinland, and who was killed in a mountain-climbing incident on Mont Blanc in 1882. [3] Graduating from Harrow Evans became part of and relied on the Old Harrovian network of acquaintances. Minchin characterized him as "a philologer and wit" as well as an expert on "the eastern question." Arthur continued his father's habit of quoting the appropriate Latin author from memory and knew some poems entirely by heart. Between 1870 and 1874 Arthur matriculated at Brasenose College,Oxford. His housemasterat Harrow, F. Rendall, had gotten him in with a recommendation that he was "a boy ofpowerful original mind." At Brasenose he read modern history, but his summertime activities were perhaps more definitive to his subsequent career. In 1871 he and Lewis visited Hallstattand the Balkans; in 1872 he and Norman adventured in the Carpathians, crossing borders illegally at high altitudes, pistols at the ready. In 1873 he and Balfour tramped overSweden,Finland and Lappland. Everywhere he went he took copious anthropological notes and made numerous drawings of the people, places and artifacts. [4] During the Christmas holidays of1873 Evans cataloged a coin collection being bequeathed to Harrow by John GardnerWilkinson, who was too ill to work on it himself. The headmaster of Harrow had suggested "my old pupil, Arthur John Evans - a remarkably able young man." [5]
