Professor Stephen Ranulph Kingdon Glanville MBE, MA, FBA, FSA, was born on 26 April 1900 in Westminster, MDX, ENG, registered St Geo Han Sq.
He was baptized on 4 August 1900 in St John the Evangelist parish church, Smith Square, Westminster, MDX, ENG, Stephen Ranulf Kingdon of Stephen James and Nannie Elizabeth Glanville, abode 3 Cowley Street, born 26 Apr 1900.
He married
Ethel Mary Chubb on 3 July 1925 in the parish church, St Peters Regent Square, St Pancras, MDX, ENG, (when age calculated as 25) registered Pancras, also registered q4 same district.
His age recorded 25, hrs 29. Fathers named Stephen James Glanville newspaper editor and John Burland Chubb retired architect.
He died on 26 April 1956 in Kings College, Cambridge, CAM, ENG, (when age calculated as 56); cause of death: Heart Attack.
Obituary in the Daily Telegraph. 28.04.1956 :-
Prof. S.R.K. Glanville.
Antiquities of Egypt.
Professor S.R.K. Glanville, provost of Kings college, Cambridge, and a noted Egyptologist, died suddenly in the college on Thursday, his fifty sixth birthday, as briefly reported in our later editions yesterday.
Stephen Ranulph Kingdon Glanville was the eldest son of Stephen James Glanville and was born at Westminster on April 26, 1900. He was educated at Marlborough and Lincoln college Oxford, of which he was a modern history scholar and later an honorary fellow. He graduated in Litterae Humaniores in 1922. He entered the Egyptian government service in the same year and in 1923 he was a member of the Egypt exploration society's expedition to Tell-el-amarneh.
In 1924 he joined the department of Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities at the British museum, where he remained until 1933, when he became a reader in Egyptology in the university of London. Two years later he was elected Edwards Professor of Egyptology which he held at university college. Meanwhile he had carried out excavations for the Egypt exploration society at El-Amarneh in 1925 and at Armant in 1928; he subsequently rendered service to the society in the offices of honorary secretary and chairman of committee. From 1929 to 1935 he was Laycock student of Egyptology at Worcester college Oxford. He was elected a fellow of the British academy in 1946.
Demotic studies.
The first volume of his catalogue of demotic papyri in the British museum was published in 1939 and the last volume only a fortnight before his death. Though primarily a demotist he was also a first class archaeologist with a rare feeling for antiquities. His strong historical sense was manifested in his contribution to the famous Christmas lectures for children at the royal institution in 1929-30 when his theme was "How things were done in ancient Egypt" The substance of these lectures was afterwards worked up into a book form and published under the title, Daily life in ancient Egypt. He was editor of the legacy of Egypt, one of the Claridon "Legacy" series, and besides his "Growth and nature of Egyptology" which was published in 1947, wrote a large number of essays and papers, which appeared in various complimentary volumes and in learned journals.
He served through the last war in the R.A.F. reaching the rank of Wing Commander, and was awarded the M.B.E. and Czechoslovak, Dutch, and Yugoslav orders. When soon after the end of the war the Herbert Thompson chair of Egyptology was founded at Cambridge the great reputation, which Glanville had established, particularly in Demotic, and Coptic studies for which the chair was specially intended, marked him out as the obvious choice for its first holder. He took up his professorship at Cambridge 1946 and was elected to Professorial fellowship at Kings college. There he rapidly won the confidence and warm affection of his colleagues; his wisdom, his courage and statesmanship, his abundant generosity of sprit soon made him one of the leading and best loved figures in the college.
When provost Sheppard retired in 1954 the unanimous vote of the fellows chose Stephen Glanville to be his successor. Never before in five hundred years had an Oxford man been elected provost, seldom one who had taken his degree in any other college than Kings; but to those who knew him the choice was no surprise. To the duties of his office he gave himself with single minded and self effacing devotion. As chairman of college meetings he was a model of what a chairman should be: Eminently fair minded, quietly expeditious, quick to grasp a problem in all its implications and resourceful in finding the just solution. He carried out the ceremonial functions of his office with a dignity which was all the more impressive for its modesty. He was an admirable host and there were few things that he enjoyed more than entertaining his many friends.
In 1925 he married Ethel Mary, the eldest daughter of Mr J.B. Chubb, who survives him together with two daughters of the marriage.
He was buried in 1956 at Grantchester, CAM, ENG, with Monumental Inscription "In loving memory of Stephen Ranulph Kingdon Glanville 26 April 1900 26 April 1956 Herbert Thompson Professor of Egyptology Provost of Kings College Cambrige 1954 - 1956 and of Ethel Mary his wife 10 November 1895 - 27 February 1961."
His estate was probated on 2 July 1956 indexed:
GLANVILLE Stephen Ranulph Kingdon of Kings College Cambridge died 26 April 1956 Probate London 2 July to Ethel Mary Glanville widow. Effects £11545 19s 11d.