H. Weld Blundell
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Herbert Joseph Weld Blundell (1852 – 5 February 1935) was an English traveller in Africa,
archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
, philanthropist and
yachtsman A yacht () is a sail- or motor-propelled watercraft made for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a ...
. He shortened his surname from Weld Blundell to Weld, in 1924.


Life to 1922

He was educated at
Stonyhurst College Stonyhurst College or Stonyhurst is a co-educational Catholic Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing education for boarding school, boarding and day school, day pupils, adhering to the Society of Jesus, Jesuit tradition. It is ...
. He travelled to
Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
in 1891, then for a decade 1894 to 1905 in North Africa and East Africa. He was a correspondent for the ''Morning Post'' during the
Second Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...
. Expeditions included *1891-2
Persepolis Persepolis (; ; ) was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (). It is situated in the plains of Marvdasht, encircled by the southern Zagros mountains, Fars province of Iran. It is one of the key Iranian cultural heritage sites and ...
, with
Lorenzo Giuntini Andrew Lawrence (“Lorenzo”) Giuntini was born ca. 1843 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. His father, Andrea Giuntini, was born ca. 1808 in Italy and, having immigrated to England, married Mary Woulds on 12 May 1839 in Lincoln. Lorenzo Giu ...
, making casts of the
relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...
s *1894-5 Libya and
Cyrenaica Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika (, , after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between the 16th and 25th meridians east, including the Kufra District. The coastal region, als ...
, creating a photographic record *1898 Abyssinia Expedition with
Lord Lovat Lord Lovat () is a title of the rank Lord of Parliament in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1458 for Hugh Fraser by summoning him to the Scottish Parliament as Lord Fraser of Lovat, although the holder is referred to simply as Lo ...
and
Reginald Koettlitz Reginald Koettlitz (1860–1916) was a British physician and polar explorer. He participated in the Jackson–Harmsworth expedition to Franz Josef Land and in the Discovery Expedition to Antarctica. Early life Reginald Koettlitz was born on 23 ...
Richard Snailham
" Europeans on the Blue Nile Region"
Anglo-Ethiopian Society The Anglo-Ethiopian Society's stated goal is "to foster knowledge of Ethiopian culture, history and way of life and to encourage friendship between the British and Ethiopian peoples." The society was founded in November 1948 by Professor Norman Be ...
, 1992 (accessed 29 June 2009)
*1904-5 Around
Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; ,) is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the largest city in the country and the List of cities in Africa b ...
*1922 Weld Blundell Expedition, found the
Weld-Blundell Prism The Weld-Blundell Prism ("WB", dated 1800 BCE) is a clay, cuneiform inscribed vertical Prism (geometry), prism housed in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The prism was found in a 1922 expedition in Larsa in modern-day Iraq by British archaeologist ...
, now in the
Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street in Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University ...
In 1921–1922 he presented the Weld Blundell Collection to the
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
.


From 1923

He backed a 1923 expedition to the Yemen, and the Field Museum-Oxford University Joint Expedition to Mesopotamia (
Kish Kish may refer to: Businesses and organisations * KISH, a radio station in Guam * Kish Air, an Iranian airline * Korean International School in Hanoi, Vietnam People * Kish (surname), including a list of people with the name * Kish, a former ...
). In 1923 he married Theodora Mclaren-Morrison, who died in 1928. In the same year he inherited
Lulworth Castle Lulworth Castle, in East Lulworth, Dorset, England, situated south of the village of Wool, is an early 17th-century hunting lodge erected in the style of a revival fortified castle, one of only five extant Elizabethan or Jacobean buildings of ...
, from a cousin, Reginald Joseph Weld Blundell. In 1928, on the death of Reginald's brother Humphrey, he inherited the rest of the
Lulworth Estate The Lulworth Estate is a country estate located in central south Dorset, England. Its most notable landscape feature is a five-mile stretch of coastline on the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site, including Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove. ...
, of the
Weld-Blundell family The Weld-Blundell family are a cadet branch, arisen in 1843, of the English Welds of Lulworth. It is an old gentry family which claims descent from Eadric the Wild and is related to other Weld branches in several parts of the United Kingdom, no ...
. In 1923 he started campaigning against Army use of
Bindon Hill Bindon Hill is an extensive Iron Age earthworks (engineering), earthwork enclosing a coastal hill area on the Jurassic Coast near Lulworth Cove in Dorset, England, about west of Swanage, about south west of Wareham, Dorset, Wareham, and abou ...
as a firing range, the beginning of the long conflict that centred on the fate of
Tyneham Tyneham is a ghost town, ghost village abandoned in 1943 and former civil parish, now in the parish of Steeple with Tyneham, in the Dorset (district), Dorset district, in the south of Dorset, England, near Lulworth on the Isle of Purbeck. In 2001 ...
and other parts of the Lulworth Estate. From 1924 he owned a large
yacht A yacht () is a sail- or marine propulsion, motor-propelled watercraft made for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a ...
, S/Y ''
Lulworth Lulworth is the popular name for an area on the coast of Dorset, South West England notable for its castle and cove. However, there is no actual place or feature called simply "Lulworth", the villages are East and West Lulworth and the coastal f ...
''. It was a prominent racing craft of its time, competing 28 times in 1925 and always placing in the first three. In 1929, Weld's intention to sell two family heirlooms, the
Luttrell Psalter The Luttrell Psalter (British Library, Add MS 42130) is an illuminated manuscript, illuminated psalter commissioned by Sir Geoffrey Luttrell (1276–1345), lord of the manor of Irnham in Lincolnshire, written and illustrated on parchment ''circa'' ...
and the
Bedford Book of Hours The Bedford Hours is a French late medieval book of hours. It dates to the early fifteenth century (c. 1410–30); some of its Miniature (illuminated manuscript), miniatures, including the portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Bedford, have be ...
at
Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...
came up against a legal issue, when just three days before these famous illuminated manuscripts were due to go under the hammer, it was discovered by
British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
lawyers that they and all the heirlooms and ' chattels' in Lulworth Castle were apparently the property of Mrs Mary Angela Noyes, née Mayne, wife of the poet
Alfred Noyes Alfred Noyes Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (16 September 188025 June 1958) was an English poet, short-story writer and playwright. Early years Noyes was born in Wolverhampton, England the son of Alfred and Amelia Adams No ...
, earlier married to Richard Shireburn Weld-Blundell, the Weld-Blundell heir who had been killed in 1916. Weld went to court, but his appeal was rejected only a few hours before the sale. The British Museum then purchased both manuscripts from Mrs Noyes with a loan from
John Pierpont Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. As the head of the banking firm that ...
. Later in 1929 Lulworth Castle was badly damaged by fire, and some of the disputed heirlooms were burned.Wright, p. 116, pp. 119–120. Upon his death, the Lulworth Estate passed to a cousin, Joseph William Weld, subsequently a
Lord Lieutenant of Dorset The Lord Lieutenant is the monarch's representative in the English county of Dorset. The office of the Lord Lieutenant was created during the reign of Henry VIII (1509–1547), taking over the military duties of the Sheriff of Dorset and contro ...
.


Works

*''The Royal Chronicle of Abyssinia, 1769–1840, with Translation and Notes'' (1922)


References

* Patrick Wright (2002 revision), ''The Village That Died for England''


Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weld Blundell, Herbert 1852 births 1935 deaths English archaeologists People educated at Stonyhurst College 19th-century British archaeologists 20th-century British archaeologists English war correspondents War correspondents of the Second Boer War
Herbert Weld Blundell Herbert Joseph Weld Blundell (1852 – 5 February 1935) was an English traveller in Africa, archaeologist, philanthropist and yachtsman. He shortened his surname from Weld Blundell to Weld, in 1924. Life to 1922 He was educated at Stonyhurst ...
Kish (Sumer)