Persona

Newberry, Percy Edward

23 April 1869 - 7 August 1949

Percy Edward Newberry M.A. O.B.E. was born on 23 April 1869 and died at his home in Godalming, England on 7 August 1949. He was educated at King’s College School and King’s College, London and later mentored in the field of Egyptology by Reginald Stuart Poole of the British Museum and Francis Llewellyn Griffith. Newberry began his career at the Egypt Exploration Fund and from 1890 to 1894 headed an expedition to investigate the tombs of Middle Kingdom nomarchs at Beni Hasan and El Bersha. In 1893-4 he published a two-volume monograph Beni Hasan which remains a definitive account of the tombs there. Newberry then operated as a freelance excavator from 1895-1901, undertaking a survey of the Necropolis at Thebes. In 1902 Newberry worked on the <i>Catalogue Général</i> of Egyptian Antiquities at the Cairo Museum.

In 1906 Newberry was appointed Brunner Professor of Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, a position he held until 1919. In 1919 Newberry was appointed O.B.E. In 1923 he served as President of the Anthropological Section of the British Association and from 1926-1927 was Vice-President of the Royal Anthropological Institute. In 1929 Newberry accepted the chair of Ancient Egyptian History and Archaeology at the University of Egypt, Cairo, a post he held until 1933.

Newberry published extensively on the field of Egyptology (see Magee, Diana, 'The Egyptological Bibliography of Percy Edward Newberry (1869-1949), in <i>The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology</i>, Volume 76, 1990) as well as Botany. Notable publications include several volumes in the series of the Archaeological Survey of Egypt, two volumes in the <i>Catalogue Général</i> of the Cairo Museum and <i>Scarabs</i> (1906).

On 12 February 1907 Newberry married Essie Winifred Johnston (1878-1953). There were no children of the marriage. Although largely undocumented, Newberry was previously married from 1894 to Helena Aders who he divorced in 1904.

Newberry, Essie Winifred (1878-1953)

• Who Was Who in Egyptology (4th ed. 2012), 402-3 fig. (portrait).