Alice Grenfell
Bristol suffrage organiser and scarab expert
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Alice Grenfell or Alice Pyne (1842 – 8 August 1917) was a British suffrage organiser and honorary secretary of the Women's Progressive Society. In later life she became an expert on ancient Egyptian scarabs.
1842
Alice Grenfell | |
|---|---|
| Born | Alice Pyne 1842 |
| Died | 8 August 1917 (aged 74–75) Oxford, England |
| Known for | study of Scarabs from ancient Egypt |
| Children | Bernard Pyne Grenfell |
Life
Grenfell married John Granville Grenfell. Their son, Bernard, was born in Birmingham but he was brought up and educated at Clifton College in Bristol, where John taught.[1]
Grenfell was active in the suffrage movement.[1] She was in America in 1888 attending the inaugural meeting of the International Council of Women in Washington with Susan B. Anthony.[2] She became the honorary secretary of the Women's Progressive Society.[3]
Grenfell served on a school board for three years.[1]
Grenfell went to live with her son after her husband died in 1897. Her son was a leading papyrologist working with Arthur Surridge Hunt. She took a great interest in her son's work and in particular Egyptian Scarab shaped artifacts.[1] She taught herself to read hieroglyphics and published her own papers including, The Iconography of Bes, and of Phoenician Bes-Hand Scarabs in 1902.[4] She created a catalogue of the Grenfell family's and the scarab collection belonging to Queen's College.[1] This collection had been left to the college by Robert Mason but it had been gathered by the Italian explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni.[5]
In 1908, he became professor of papyrology at Oxford, however he was ill and she cared for him for four years. During that time the professorship lapsed. He had recovered by 1913.[1] Grenfell died in Oxford in 1917.[citation needed]
Her son died on 18 May 1926, and was buried in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford.[6]