Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Colonial official · Antiquities official · Collector · Donor

Henry Ernest Gascoyne Bulwer

Sir Henry Ernest Gascoyne Bulwer

1836–1914 · United Kingdom

High Commissioner of Cyprus from 1886 to 1892 whose minute of 16 June 1887 limited excavation permits to foreign museums and recognised institutions; he gave Tamassos finds to the Fitzwilliam.

Biography

On 16 June 1887 Sir Henry Bulwer, High Commissioner of Cyprus and ex officio president of the Cyprus Museum Committee, wrote a minute ending private excavation permits. After a year in the chair he had decided that private digging served speculative and commercial purposes, not knowledge. The Government had given the Cyprus Museum the rights of excavation, to be held in trust for the public, and permits would go only to foreign museums and recognised antiquarian institutions, which could receive a share of the finds on conditions3. Kiely and Merrillees add that this did not stop illicit digging, private collecting or exports under licence1.

Bulwer was born in 1836, studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was the first civilian High Commissioner of Cyprus, in office from 9 March 1886 to 5 April 18921. He succeeded Robert Biddulph. The Hellenic Society's account of its first season says he had resolved to discountenance private exploration while helping work organised by a recognised scientific body, and that this, with Francis Henry Hill Guillemard's reports, led to the Cyprus Exploration Fund in late 18875.

In March 1887 Max Ohnefalsch-Richter wrote to him three times to complain about Falkland Warren7. In October 1888 Bulwer accepted the resignation of the Museum Council and appointed H. C. Nicolle to run the museum; a Committee of Management replaced the Council in 18891.

Bulwer formed a collection of Cypriot antiquities. Kiely and Merrillees say a substantial part was bought through Eustathios Constantinides from the Archbishop's landowner share of the 1889 Tamassos excavations, while Buchholz reads the purchases as coming from the third that went to the partners1,12. Buchholz records that he gave Tamassos finds to the Fitzwilliam Museum, announced in the Cambridge University Reporter on 1 March 18927. A Cypro-Syllabic tablet, given to him by William James Massy, was still in his hands when Meister published it in 1910, and the British Museum bought it in 19501. He died in 19141.

Life and work

  1. 9 March 1886
    Took up office as High Commissioner of Cyprus (to 5 April 1892), succeeding Biddulph; first civilian High Commissioner; previously in Natal 1875-1885.

    CyprusKiely & Merrillees 2012Tatton-Brown 2001

  2. March 1887
    Ohnefalsch-Richter wrote to Bulwer on 1, 20 and 25 March 1887 complaining about Col. Warren, who he said sought his dismissal as curator and had removed an antique vase from his house.

    NicosiaBuchholz 1989

  3. 16 June 1887
    Minute to the Cyprus Museum Committee: private excavation is for speculative and commercial purposes, not knowledge; the excavation rights belong to the Cyprus Museum, held in trust for the public; permits henceforth only to foreign museums and recognised antiquarian institutions, which may obtain a share of finds under conditions. Copy entered in Committee minutes of 6 August 1887.

    NicosiaTatton-Brown 2001Kiely & Merrillees 2012

  4. 6 August 1887
    Cyprus Museum Committee meeting at which Bulwer's minute of 16 June was entered.

    NicosiaTatton-Brown 2001, n. 28

  5. 1887–1888
    Bulwer had resolved to discountenance all private exploration but would help work organised by a recognised scientific body; Guillemard's pressing led to the Cyprus Exploration Fund (formed late 1887); Bulwer's policy is described as a cause of the CEF.

    Gardner et al. 1888Kiely 2010, p. 246

  6. 1887–1888
    Acquired the marble block with a Phoenician dedication to Anat by King Baalmilk II from Idalion (found 1887 by Ohnefalsch-Richter and Constantinides in the church of Ayios Georgios); evidently donated by him to the Cyprus Museum; Ohnefalsch-Richter said the proceeds went to restoring the church.

    IdalionKiely & Merrillees 2012

  7. October 1888
    Accepted the resignation of the Cyprus Museum Council and appointed H. C. Nicolle (Auditor-General) to run the Museum; the change-over was deferred until Samuel Brown returned from leave; Council ratified on 10 December 1888.

    NicosiaKiely & Merrillees 2012

  8. 1889
    Replaced the Governing Council with a Committee of Management and found a suitable building in Nicosia (Victoria Street, occupied from mid-1889) for the Government collection.

    NicosiaKiely & Merrillees 2012

  9. February 1889
    Berlin Royal Museums, with Samuel Brown as agent, obtained a permit for Idalion/Dali (letter of Schöne of 7 Feb 1889); Ohnefalsch-Richter wrote to Bulwer on 12 Feb 1889; the permit was rescinded once the administration found the site reserved for the government. Howorth protested in London on 25 Feb 1889.

    IdalionSchmid 2025

  10. 1889
    Bought, through Eustathios Constantinides, the share of the 1889 Tamassos excavations (called the Archbishop's landowner share by Kiely and Merrillees; Ohnefalsch-Richter's one third by Merrillees and Buchholz).

    TamassosKiely & Merrillees 2012Buchholz 2007Buchholz 1991, n. 22

  11. 1892
    Presented Tamassos finds from Ohnefalsch-Richter's excavations (the "Bulwer Coll., plot 1") to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (Cambridge University Reporter, 1 March 1892, pp. 564f., signed J. H. Middleton); the remainder ("plot 2") entered a Fitzwilliam note of 3 April 1907 as "the remainder of those pres. by Bulwer in 1892", later mainly dispersed to other museums.

    CambridgeBuchholz 1989Ulbrich & Kiely 2012

  12. 5 April 1892
    Left office; retired from the colonial service (a rumour of a Queensland governorship in The Owl, 27 Oct 1888, came to nothing).

    CyprusKiely & Merrillees 2012

  13. 1897
    Led a delegation of the Silk Weaving Association to Joseph Chamberlain on Cypriot economic development.

    LondonKiely & Merrillees 2012

  14. 1910
    Cypro-Syllabic clay tablet, given to Bulwer by his former private secretary Col. William James Massy, published by Meister while still in Bulwer's possession; later with the Rev. W. C. Hall, sold to the British Museum in 1950; probably stayed at Heydon Hall till the 1949/50 house sale.

    Kiely & Merrillees 2012

Connections

19 people
Max Ohnefalsch-RichterEustathios ConstantinidesSophronios III, Archbisho…J. H. MiddletonWilliam James MassyRosemary WebbTankerville James Chamber…George Fowler King-HallH. C. NicolleAlexander Stuart MurrayRichard MeisterAlexander ConzeFalkland WarrenSamuel BrownRobert BiddulphFrancis Henry Hill Guille…Henry Rider HaggardEdward CarlettiW. C. HallHenry Ernest Gascoyne Bulwer
Sales & giftsFamilyFieldworkScholarshipColleagues

Sales, gifts & bequests

Family

Fieldwork & employment

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

Objects

On Ancient Cyprus

2 pages

Sources

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  2. 2.Anja Ulbrich, Thomas Kiely (2012). “Britain and the Archaeology of Cyprus. I. The long 19th century”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 42. Online
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  11. 11.Robert Stuart Merrillees (2005). “Towards a fuller history of the Cyprus Museum”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 35, 191-214. Online
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  17. 17.Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. “Fitzwilliam Museum online collection records”. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Online
  18. 18.Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge (n.d.). “Online collection records (reg. 1951.2042 B, C, E.1 and 3 more)”.
  19. 19.Craig Barker (2012). Aphrodite's Island: The Cypriot Collection of the Nicholson Museum. Sydney, Nicholson Museum, University of Sydney.
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