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February 12th
Edward Maunde Thompson Born 1840 Died 1929
Edward Thompson was born in Jamaica in 1840. His father was Edward Thompson, the Custos of Clarendon and member of the Assembly for the same parish; his mother was Eliza Hayhurst Poole, daughter of Samuel Poole, of Ludlow Estate, Clarendon. His wife, Georgiana Susanna McKenzie, whom he married in 1864, was from an old Scots-Jamaican family; her earliest Jamaican ancestor was Sir Alexander McKenzie, who had settled in Jamaica after being involved in an expedition to Darien, presumably the ill-fated one in the late 1690s. His younger brother was later the owner of the Seville Estate, near St Ann's Bay.
In 1842 the very young Edward travelled to England with his mother and aunt, and the family settled in Cheltenham, where he received his early education. Later he went to Rugby, the ‘public school’ reformed by Dr Arnold in the 1830s, and in 1859 to University College, Oxford. However he had to leave Oxford after only one year, because of his father’s money problems.
He apparently returned to Jamaica briefly, but in 1861 applied for a post as an assistant at the British Museum, which he obtained. He worked at first in the principal librarian's office, but was soon moved to the Department of Manuscripts. In 1867 he qualified as a barrister, but never practised. In 1866 he had been made assistant to the Keeper of the Manuscripts, and in 1871 he was made Assistant Keeper of the Manuscripts. He had now firmly embarked on a career which was to have enormous significance for the development of the British Museum far into the future.
Portrait in the Board Room of the British Museum
British Museum in the mid-19th century
'. . . the man who propelled the British Museum into the 20th century . . .'
He was made Principal Librarian in 1888 (the title ‘Director of the Museum’ was added in 1898, in recognition of his work) and his scholarly work in palaeography was largely put on hold until after his retirement in 1909. He attacked several of the areas of weakness at the Museum. He insisted on better performance by the staff, but also saw to improvements in pay-scales. He worked to make the Museum more accessible to the public and to create the space needed for its ever-growing collections. He also saw to the extension of the Museum’s archaeological activities. By 1908 the effort involved in his various activities both within and outside the Museum led to a break-down in his health; he retired in the following year. After 20 years of active retirement he died in 1929, out-living his wife by some 12 years.
It is difficult to know what Sir Edward felt about his Jamaican background, which certainly could not have been of any particular benefit in his career at the Museum. He does not appear to have visited Jamaica again after the 1860s. A Gleaner writer in 1895 claimed – ‘He still takes a great interest in Jamaica’, but his connection with the island was apparently forgotten, only to be remembered with surprise when his retirement made news in 1909. At that time another writer claimed that Sir Edward’s brother had told him Sir Edward had no interest in maintaining any contact with Jamaica. Frank Cundall, secretary of the Institute of Jamaica, however, wrote at the time of Maunde Thompson’s death in 1929 of the courtesy and generous assistance he had received from him at the Museum and after his retirement. He was in any case a remarkable man, who should be remembered in the country of his birth.
the worthy frog
Joy Lumsden 2007
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