Edwyn Robert Bevan

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

, FBA (15 February 1870 in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

– 18 October 1943 in London) was a versatile British philosopher and historian of the

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

world.

Life

Edwyn Robert Bevan was the fourteenth of sixteen children of

Robert Cooper Lee Bevan Robert Cooper Lee Bevan (8 February 180922 July 1890) was a British banker. He served as a senior partner of Barclays Bank. Early life Robert Cooper Lee Bevan was born on 8 February 1809 at Hale End, Walthamstow. He was the eldest son of fellow ...

, a partner in

Barclays Bank Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...

, and his second wife Emma Frances Shuttleworth, daughter of

Philip Nicholas Shuttleworth Philip Nicholas Shuttleworth (9 February 1782 – 7 January 1842) was an English churchman and academic, Warden of New College, Oxford, from 1822 and Bishop of Chichester. Life Philip Shuttleworth was second son of Humphrey Shuttleworth, vicar ...

Bishop of Chichester The Bishop of Chichester is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the counties of East Sussex, East and West Sussex. The Episcopal see, see is based in t ...

. He was educated at

Monkton Combe School Monkton Combe School is a public school ( fee-charging boarding and day school), in the village of Monkton Combe near Bath in Somerset, England. History Monkton Combe School was founded in 1868 by the Revd. Francis Pocock, a former curate ...

and at

New College, Oxford New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...

. Bevan held an academic position at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

as Lecturer in Hellenistic History and Literature. The Arabist

Anthony Ashley Bevan Anthony Ashley Bevan, Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (1859–1933) was a British Oriental studies, orientalist. He was the son of the banker Robert Cooper Lee Bevan, and his second wife, the translator and poet Frances Bevan. Frances was the ...

was his brother, the conspiracy theorist

Nesta Helen Webster Nesta Helen Webster (née Bevan, 24 August 1876 – 16 May 1960) was an English author who revived conspiracy theories about the Illuminati.Who are the Illuminati? ''Independent on Sunday'' (London) 6 November 2005. She claimed that the sec ...

was his youngest sister and the artist

Robert Polhill Bevan Robert Polhill Bevan (5 August 1865 – 8 July 1925) was a British painter, draughtsman and lithographer who was married to the Polish-born artist Stanisława de Karłowska. He was a founding member of the Camden Town Group, the London Grou ...

a cousin. He married Mary Waldegrave, daughter of

Granville Waldegrave, 3rd Baron Radstock Granville Augustus William Waldegrave, 3rd Baron Radstock (10 April 1833 – 8 December 1913)Harold H. Rowdon"Waldegrave, Granville Augustus William, third Baron Radstock (1833–1913)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford Univ ...

in 1896 and they had two daughters, Christina (born March 1897, died 1981) and Anne (born March 1898,died 1983). Bevan's name is given in a list of staff at

Wellington House Wellington House is the more common name for Britain's War Propaganda Bureau, which operated during the First World War from Wellington House, a building on Buckingham Gate, London, which was the headquarters of the National Insurance Commission ...

, Britain's War Propaganda Bureau, in a report from February 1916. His role was "Reader & Reporter German papers" Bevan was awarded an honorary doctorate from St. Andrews in 1922 and an honorary D.Litt. from

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

in 1923. In 1942 he became a Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

Autochromes of Christina

A series of early colour photographs

Mervyn O'Gorman Mervyn Joseph Pius O'Gorman (19 December 1871 – 16 March 1958) was a British electrical and aircraft engineer. After working as an electrical engineer, he was appointed Superintendent of what became the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnboroug ...

took in 1913 of Bevan's oldest daughter Christina Elizabeth Frances Bevan dressed in red were included in the ''Drawn by Light'' exhibition in 2015 by the

National Science and Media Museum The National Science and Media Museum (formerly The National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, 1983–2006 and then the National Media Museum, 2006–2017), located in Bradford, West Yorkshire, is part of the national Science Museum G ...

and gained press and social media attention.

Works

* ''The House of Seleucus'' (1902) 2 volume
''Volume I''''Volume II''
* '' The Prometheus Bound of Aeschylus'', rendered into English verse 1902
''Jerusalem under the High Priests: Five Lectures on the Period between Nehemiah and the New Testament''
(1904)
''The Seven against Thebes''
of Aeschylus, rendered into English verse 1912
''Indian Nationalism : An Independent Estimate''
(1913)
''Stoics and Sceptics''
(1913)
''Brothers all: The War and the Race Question''
(1914)
''Peace with Empire: The Problem''
(1915)
''German War Aims''
(1917)
''The Method in the Madness: A fresh Consideration of the Case between Germany and Ourselves''
(1917)
''Ancient Mesopotamia: The Land of The Two Rivers''
(1918)
''German Social Democracy During the War''
1918)
''The German Empire of Central Africa as the Basis of a New German World Policy''
(1918) with

Emil Zimmermann Emil Zimmermann is a retired East German slalom canoeist who competed from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s. He won two silver medals at the 1957 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships in Augsburg Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, ...

''Hellenism and Christianity''
(1921)
''The Hellenistic Age''
(1923) with

J. B. Bury John Bagnell Bury (; 16 October 1861 – 1 June 1927) was an Anglo-Irish historian, classical scholar, Medieval Roman historian and philologist. He objected to the label " Byzantinist" explicitly in the preface to the 1889 edition of his ''La ...

, E. A. Barber,

W. W. Tarn Sir William Woodthorpe Tarn (26 February 1869 – 7 November 1957) was a British classical scholar and writer. He wrote extensively on the Hellenistic world, particularly on Alexander the Great's empire and its successor states. Life William Woo ...

''The House of Ptolemy''
(1927) * ''The World of Greece and Rome'' (in Benn's Sixpenny Library) (1927) * ''Later Greek Religion'' (1927) * ''Sibyls and Seers: A Survey of Some Ancient Theories of Revelation and Inspiration'' (1928) * ''The Legacy of Israel'' (1928) editor with

Charles Singer Charles Joseph Singer (2 November 1876 – 10 June 1960) was a British historian of science, technology, and medicine. He served as medical officer in the British Army. Biography Early years Singer was born in Camberwell in London, where hi ...

* ''Thoughts on Indian Discontents'' (1929)
''Jerusalem under the high priests: five lectures on the period between Nehemiah and the New Testament''
(1930) * ''The hope of a world to come; underlying Judaism and Christianity'' (1930) * ''The Poems of Leonidas of Tarentum'' (1931) * ''Christianity'' (1932)

Home University Library of Modern Knowledge The ''Home University Library of Modern Knowledge'' was a series of popular non-fiction books from the first half of the twentieth century that ran to over 200 volumes. The authors were eminent scholars in their fields and included Isaiah Berlin, ...

* ''Our Debt to the Past'' (1932) with others * ''After Death'' (1934) with others
''Symbolism and Belief''
(1938)

Gifford Lectures The Gifford Lectures () are an annual series of lectures which were established in 1887 by the will of Adam Gifford, Lord Gifford at the four ancient universities of Scotland: St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Their purpose is to "pro ...

* ''Holy Images: An Inquiry Into Idolatry and Image-Worship in Ancient Paganism and in Christianity'' (1940)
''Christians in a World at War''
(1940)

References

External links

*

at

LacusCurtius LacusCurtius is the ancient Graeco-Roman part of a large history website, hosted as of March 2025 on a server at the University of Chicago. Starting in 1995, as of January 2004 it gave "access to more than 594 photos, 559 drawings and engravings, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bevan, Edwyn 1870 births 1943 deaths Edwyn People educated at Monkton Combe School English historians 19th-century English philosophers 20th-century English philosophers English people of Welsh descent Hellenists Academics of King's College London Officers of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the British Academy Artists' Rifles soldiers Hellenistic civilization