George Somes Layard (1857–1925) was an English barrister, journalist and man of letters. He was the third son of Sarah (née Somes) and Charles Clement Layard, rector of

Combe Hay Combe Hay is a village and civil parish in the English county of Somerset. It falls within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The parish has a population of 147. History Combe Hay was known in the Domesday Book as Cumb. The pa ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, born at

Clifton, Bristol Clifton is an inner suburb of Bristol, England, and the name of one of the city's thirty-five Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral wards. The Clifton ward also includes the areas of Cliftonwood and Hotwells. The easter ...

; Nina Frances Layard was his sister. He was educated at

Harrow School Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (school founder), John Lyon, a local landowner an ...

and

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 ...

. Matriculating to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

in 1876, he graduated B.A. in 1881, and was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

that year at the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practice as a barrister in England and Wa ...

, which he had joined in 1877. He married Eleanor Byng Gribble. The psychologist John Willoughby Layard was their second child.

Family connections

Layard was related to a number of prominent individuals through both his parents. His father was first cousin (on his father's side) of Sir

Austen Henry Layard Sir Austen Henry Layard (; 5 March 18175 July 1894) was an English Assyriologist, traveller, cuneiformist, art historian, draughtsman, collector, politician and diplomat. He was born to a mostly English family in Paris and largely raised in It ...

(excavator of

Nineveh Nineveh ( ; , ''URUNI.NU.A, Ninua''; , ''Nīnəwē''; , ''Nīnawā''; , ''Nīnwē''), was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul (itself built out of the Assyrian town of Mepsila) in northern ...

and

Nimrud Nimrud (; ) is an ancient Assyrian people, Assyrian city (original Assyrian name Kalḫu, biblical name Calah) located in Iraq, south of the city of Mosul, and south of the village of Selamiyah (), in the Nineveh Plains in Upper Mesopotamia. ...

Edgar Leopold Layard Edgar Leopold Layard MBOU, (23 July 1824 – 1 January 1900) was a British diplomat and a naturalist mainly interested in ornithology and to a lesser extent the molluscs. He worked for a significant part of his life in Ceylon and later ...

(Curator of the

South African Museum The Iziko South African Museum, formerly the South African Museum (Afrikaans: Suid-Afrikaanse Museum), is a South African national museum located in Cape Town. The museum was founded in 1825, the first in the country. It has been on its present ...

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

, and Governor of

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

), and of

Lady Charlotte Guest Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Guest (née Bertie; 19 May 1812 – 15 January 1895), later Lady Charlotte Schreiber, was an English aristocrat who is best known as the first publisher in modern print format of the ''Mabinogion'', the earliest prose li ...

(translator of the

Mabinogion The ''Mabinogion'' () is a collection of the earliest Welsh prose stories, compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, created –1410, as well as a few earlier frag ...

and collector of ceramics). His grandfather Brownlow Villiers Layard was aide-de-camp and afterwards (1802) private chaplain to the

Duke of Kent Duke of Kent is a title that has been created several times in the peerages of Great Britain and the United Kingdom, most recently as a royal dukedom for the fourth son of King George V. Since 1942, the title has been held by Prince Edwa ...

(and brother of the Governors of

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

and

Curaçao Curaçao, officially the Country of Curaçao, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea (specifically the Dutch Caribbean region), about north of Venezuela. Curaçao includ ...

and of Lady Lindsey), and was the son of a Dean of

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

and grandson of the accoucheur

Daniel Peter Layard Daniel Peter Layard, (1721–1802) was an English physician and midwife. Biography Daniel Peter Layard was the son of Pierre Raymond de Layard (1666-1747), a Huguenot of good parentage of Monflanquin in Guienne ( Lot et Garonne), who fled fro ...

. C. C. Layard was also first cousin (on his mother's side) of

Lady Llanover Augusta Hall, Baroness Llanover (21 March 1802 – 17 January 1896), born Augusta Waddington, was a Welsh heiress, best known as a patron of the Welsh arts. Early life She was born on 12 March 1802, near Abergavenny, the youngest daughter of ...

(of the

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, of or about Wales * Welsh language, spoken in Wales * Welsh people, an ethnic group native to Wales Places * Welsh, Arkansas, U.S. * Welsh, Louisiana, U.S. * Welsh, Ohio, U.S. * Welsh Basin, during t ...

cultural revival), being the son of Louisa Port, sister of Georgiana (favoured grandniece of Mrs Delany and companion of

Fanny Burney Frances Burney (13 June 1752 – 6 January 1840), also known as Fanny Burney and later Madame d'Arblay, was an English satirical novelist, diarist and playwright. In 1786–1790 she held the post of "Keeper of the Robes" to Charlotte of Mecklen ...

), and therefore a descendant of Bernard Granville of Calwich and of

Sir Richard Grenville Sir Richard Grenville ( – ), also spelt Greynvile, Greeneville, and Greenfield, was an English privateer and explorer. Grenville was lord of the manors of Stowe, Cornwall and Bideford, Devon. He subsequently participated in the planta ...

of ' The Revenge'. Layard's mother Sarah Somes was sister of Samuel Somes and the MP,

Joseph Somes Joseph Somes (9 December 1787 – 25 June 1845) was a Great Britain, British shipowner and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician. Family Born in Stepney, London, Somes was the youngest son of Samuel Somes (1758–1816) and Sarah né ...

. In the 1830s her brothers were the largest ship-owners in London and held contracts for convict shipping to Australia. His sister Nina Layard was a poet, prehistorian, archaeologist and antiquarian who conducted important excavations, and one of the first four women to be admitted as Fellow of the

Society of Antiquaries of London The Society of Antiquaries of London (SAL) is a learned society of historians and archaeologists in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1707, received its royal charter in 1751 and is a Charitable organization, registered charity. It is based ...

Works

*
The Life and Letters of Charles Samuel Keene
' (1892) (See

Charles Samuel Keene Charles Samuel Keene (10 August 1823 – 4 January 1891) was an English artist and illustrator, who worked in black and white. Early life The son of Samuel Browne Keene, a solicitor, he was born at Hornsey. Educated at the Ipswich School ...

.) *
Tennyson and his pre-Raphaelite illustrators. A book about a book
' (1894) * ''Portraits of Cruikshank by Himself'' (1897) *
Mrs. Lynn Linton ; her life, letters, and opinions
' (1901) * '
The Life and Work of Kate Greenaway
' (A. & C. Black, London 1905) with

Marion Harry Spielmann Marion Harry Alexander Spielmann (London, 22 May 1858 – 1948) was a prolific Victorian art critic and scholar who was the editor of ''The Connoisseur'' and ''Magazine of Art''. Among his voluminous output, he wrote a history of '' Punch'', ...

(See

Kate Greenaway Catherine Greenaway (17 March 18466 November 1901) was an English Victorian artist and writer, known for her children's book illustrations. She received her education in graphic design and art between 1858 and 1871 from the Finsbury School of ...

.) * ''Sir Thomas Lawrence's Letter-bag'' (George Allen, London 1906) *
Suppressed plates, wood engravings, &c., together with other curiosities germane thereto; being an account of certain matters peculiarly alluring to the collector
' (A. & C. Black, London 1907) *
A Great "Punch" Editor: Being the Life, Letters, and Diaries of Shirley Brooks
' (1907) (See

Shirley Brooks Charles William Shirley Brooks (29 April 1816 – 23 February 1874) was an English journalist and novelist. Born in London, he began his career in a solicitor's office. Shortly afterwards he took to writing, and contributed to various per ...

.) * ''The Headless Horseman: Pierre Lombart's Engraving, Charles or Cromwell?'' (1922) * ''An Amateur Detective'' (1925) * ''Catalogue Raisonné of Engraved British Portraits from altered plates'' (Philip Allan & Co, London 1927)

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Layard, George Somes 1857 births 1925 deaths People educated at Harrow School English biographers English journalists People educated at Monkton Combe School Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Place of death missing