Alexander Keiller
| Alexander Keiller | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Born | 1889 | ||||||||
| Died | 1955 | ||||||||
| Residence |
4 Charles Street, Berkeley Square, W1 The Manor, Avebury, Wilts. [1935] 32 Fairacres, Roehampton Lane, SW15 [1949] Telegraph Cottage, Kingston Hill, Surrey [A31] | ||||||||
| Occupation | archaeologist | ||||||||
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Contents
Notes
Office Notes
RAI Council 1930-31 Member
House Notes
1925.11.17 proposed by O.G.S. Crawford, seconded by C.G. Seligman
Notes From Elsewhere
Alexander Keiller FSA FGS (1889–1955) was a Scottish archaeologist and businessman who worked on an extensive prehistoric site at Avebury in Wiltshire, England.
Keiller was heir to the marmalade business of his family, James Keiller & Son that had been established in 1797[1] in Dundee, and exported marmalade and confectionery across the British Empire.
He used his wealth to acquire a total of 950 acres (3.8 km2) of land in Avebury for preservation and he conducted excavations, re-erected stones on the Avebury site, and created a museum to interpret the site. He also pioneered aerial photography for archaeological interpretation.[2]
Keiller founded the Morven Institute of Archeological Research[3][4] there, now the Alexander Keiller Museum[5][3] and held by the National Trust after Keiller's widow gifted the building to the Trust in 1966. In 1943 he had sold the land at Avebury to the National Trust for its agricultural value only.[2]
On 2 June 1913, Keiller married Florence Marianne Phil-Morris (1883–1955), the daughter of artist Philip Richard Morris. They moved into Keiller's house in London. After the First World War, they were divorced.
On 29 February 1924, Keiller married Veronica Mildred Liddell (1900–1964). Veronica shared his interest in archaeology and visited Avebury with him later that year. She was one of the supervisors for the 1925–1929 Windmill Hill excavations, near Avebury. Following a separation, Keiller divorced Veronica in 1934.
On 16 November 1938, Keiller married for a third time; his new wife was Doris Emerson Chapman (b. 1901), an artist. She had joined the Morven Institute of Archaeological Research, founded by Keiller, in 1937. Her contributions in this field include detailed illustrations of the stones as part of the West Kennet Avenue excavations and the creation of visual reconstructions of faces from skulls, four of which were from a burial mound at Chippenham.
He later married a fourth time, to Gabrielle Style (1908–1995). She lived past his death in 1955, and in 1966 she donated the museum and its contents to the nation.
Publications
External Publications
Wessex from the air (with O.G.S. Crawford), 1928
House Publications
Related Material Details
RAI Material
Other Material
In 1943, Keiller sold his holdings in Avebury to the National Trust for £12,000, simply the agricultural value of the 950 acres (3.8 km2) he had accrued. This did not reflect the immense investment he had made at the site. In 1966, his widow Gabrielle Keiller donated the Avebury museum and its contents to the nation
