Page 24 - They Also Served

examining the merits of various smooth-bore muskets and became an instructor on the Minié rifle. Later, he founded the School of Musketry at Hythe, becoming its chief instructor. He saw active service in the Crimean War, being present at the Battle of the Alma in 1854 and was awarded a brevet promotion for his services. In 1880, he inherited the estates of his cousin and was required to adopt the name Pitt-Rivers. He retired as a colonel in 1882 and was given the honorary rank of lieutenant-general.
However, it is as an archaeologist and conservationist that Pitt-Rivers is best known. Throughout his military career he travelled the world collecting items, influenced by the writings of Charles Darwin. He viewed archaeology as an extension of anthropology and thus arranged his collection into developmental sequences to support the theory of evolution. This style of display was revolutionary at the time but now forms the basis for modern curating. His collection formed the basis of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, considered to be one of the six most important ethnological museums in the world.
The estates Pitt-Rivers inherited contained a wealth of archaeological material from the Roman and Saxon periods, and he spent 17 years excavating various ancient sites on his own land. His approach was methodical, with every item catalogued and recorded, and he is credited with being the first scientific archaeologist to work in Britain. He preserved all artefacts, including everyday items, believing these to be the keys to understanding the past. In this, he broke from the earlier ‘treasure-hunting’ approach to the science.
After the passing of the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882, Pitt-Rivers was the first Inspector of Ancient Monuments. Under his direction, the Kit’s Coty House burial chambers in Kent were preserved and fenced, becoming the first historic site to be protected by the state. He was also an advocate of cremation as a practical way to dispose of bodies at a time when the practice was believed to be immoral. Augustus Pitt-Rivers, father of British archaeology, was, indeed, cremated after his death in 1900.
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