# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Lubbock, John

​LUBBOCK, Sir JOHN, fourth baronet, and first Baron Avebury (1834–1913), banker, man of science, and author, was the eldest son of Sir John William Lubbock [q.v.], third baronet, of Lammas, Norfolk, by his wife, Harriet, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel George Hotham, of York. His father was a banker of distinguished mathematical ability and was for many years treasurer of the Royal Society. John Lubbock was born at 29 Eaton Place, London, 30 April 1834; six years later, on his father's succession to the baronetcy, the family moved to High Elms, Down, Kent. This was his country home for the rest of his life, except for an interval of four years at Chiselhurst (1861–1865) subsequent to his marriage, and for periods spent on the Kent coast at Kingsgate Castle, which he acquired and rebuilt in 1901. He showed at an early age a marked aptitude for natural history, for which his country life gave full scope. It received the greatest stimulus, and Lubbock himself a lasting impress on his whole character and career, through the influence of his father's friend, Charles Darwin, who came to reside at Down in 1841, and at once took a keen interest in the boy's early efforts. After three years at a private school at Abingdon, Lubbock at the age of eleven (1845) went to Eton, where, in the intervals of freedom from steady application to studies for which he had little zest and no conspicuous talent, he pursued solitarily his hobby of natural history. The failing health of his father's partners soon caused Lubbock's withdrawal from Eton, and in 1849, before he was fifteen, he was installed at the bank, where he soon showed exceptional capacity, and before long was able to assume responsibility for an important share in the management. He improved his general and scientific knowledge by carefully ordered private study, and spent much time with Darwin.
From this early time the course of Lubbock's life flowed in three strong and steady currents without any conspicuous interruption. He worked hard at his business and acquired a leading position among bankers; he devoted his leisure largely to the pursuit of natural science and won a recognized place among the most eminent of its followers; and thirdly, he made for himself a position of peculiar importance and usefulness in public life, notably in parliament, where he effected important legislation. Lubbock was a prolific author, and as an expositor of science and an intellectual and moral mentor to the general public he had a vogue that is almost without parallel in modern times. At the same time, his home at High Elms was a social centre for a multitude of friends, including leading men of science and statesmen, and his life included a large measure of foreign travel.
Lubbock married in 1856 Ellen Frances (died 1879), daughter of the Rev. Peter Hordern, of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Lancashire, and by her he had three sons and three daughters. He succeeded to the baronetcy in 1865. Five years after the death of his first wife he married in 1884 Alice, daughter of General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers [q.v.], the distinguished archaeologist. His second family consisted of three sons and two daughters. On being raised to the peerage in 1900, he assumed the title of Baron Avebury, of Avebury, Wiltshire.
Lubbock's long, strenuous, and successful public life made him one of the best known and most highly esteemed men of his day. His power of work, his systematic habits, and his ability to keep his mind engaged on a great variety of topics and to pass and repass from one to another without confusion were quite unusual. As the head of Robarts, Lubbock & Co. he was continuously active in the banking world, where at an early age he inaugurated both the important reform known as the system of country clearing and the publication of clearing-house returns. He was honorary secretary of the London Bankers in 1863; from 1898 to 1913 he was chairman of the committee of London clearing bankers and president ​of the Central Association of Bankers; and from 1879 to 1883 he was first president of the Institute of Bankers. His successful reforming zeal and wide outlook on finance led to his being invited in 1863 to stand as parliamentary candidate for the city of London. He refused the invitation, but after unsuccessful attempts for West Kent in 1865 and 1868, he was elected as liberal M.P. for Maidstone in 1870 and again in 1874. After defeat there in 1880 he was immediately returned unopposed for London University and retained the seat till he was raised to the peerage. He was made a privy councillor in 1890. Throughout his parliamentary career Lubbock addressed himself with unremitting zeal to securing the passage of acts on which he had set his mind. The best known of these was the Bank Holidays Act of 1871, which established the public holiday in August. Appreciation of this boon was reflected in a temporary currency of the term ‘St. Lubbock's day’ for the first Monday in August. Through his advocacy, and after many attempts, the Act for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments was passed in 1882 and the Early Closing Act in 1904. Besides these, numerous acts of parliament relating to banking and finance and to social amelioration owed much to Lubbock's efforts; and, though never a minister, he occupied important offices such as the chairmanship of the committee on public accounts (1888–1889).
Outside finance and parliament, Lubbock's interests and authority in public life are shown by his having been president of the London Chamber of Commerce (1888–1893) and an original member and subsequently chairman of the London County Council (1890–1892); in the world of education he was a member of the senate and then vice-chancellor of London University (1872–1880), chairman of the Society for the Extension of University Teaching (1894–1902), principal of the Working Men's College in Great Ormond Street (1883–1898), a trustee of the British Museum, and rector of St. Andrews University (1908).
In science, Lubbock's main interest lay in the study of the habits, life history, and ancestry of living things throughout the kingdom of plants and animals up to man himself. His studies covered a wide range of topics and bore fruit in many contributions to the proceedings of learned societies. Notwithstanding its range, Lubbock's scientific work was by no means superficial, and it is noteworthy that eleven years after his death several distinguished scientists combined to testify to its value [The Life-Work of Lord Avebury (Sir John Lubbock), 1924]. He was a pioneer in the experimental study of animal behaviour, and his researches on ants are probably the most valuable of his contributions to science. Of importance also are his studies of the life histories of insects and of the problem of their metamorphosis. He also published a standard Monograph of the Collembola and Thysanura (1873). In botany his contributions included much that was new and of permanent value. In geology he was actively associated with Darwin, Sir Charles Lyell, Sir Roderick Murchison, Adam Sedgwick, and their successors; and his interest in the new science of anthropology led him to travel to many centres in Europe where there was news or promise of fresh evidence of man's antiquity.
Lubbock was president of many scientific societies, and a member of the council of the Royal Society; he presided over the British Association at the jubilee meeting at York in 1881. The titles of his scientific books, such as Prehistoric Times (1865), On the Origin and Metamorphoses of Insects (1874), The Origin of Civilization … (1870), Ants, Bees, and Wasps (1882), On the Senses, Instincts, and Intelligence of Animals (1888), A Contribution to our Knowledge of Seedlings (1892), The Scenery of Switzerland (1896), On Buds and Stipules (1899), and Marriage, Totemism, and Religion (1911), indicate the wide ambit of his studies.
In addition to his gifts as an investigator, Lubbock possessed a missionary zeal for the intellectual enlightenment and moral elevation of the public, and he had a remarkable power of enlisting the interest of the unlearned world. His list of the Hundred Best Books (1891) was a stimulus to the multitude, whilst later works with titles so common-place as The Pleasures of Life (1887), The Beauties of Nature (1892), The Use of Life (1894), Peace and Happiness (1909), ran through many editions.
In his politics, Lubbock was throughout life a pronounced liberal, but in 1885 he associated himself with the unionist wing of the party. In religion, at an early period of his life, he moved away from orthodoxy and dogma, but his nature was in the highest degree reverent. He did not dissociate himself from the observances of religion, and both in speech and in print he refrained from anything controversial or aggressive. A high optimism gave his ethical books an instant hold on ​multitudes of readers. Lubbock's bodily vigour was well maintained throughout his strenuous life of public service. Towards the end he suffered much from illness, which terminated in his death at Kingsgate Castle on 28 May 1913. His body was removed to High Elms and buried in Farnborough churchyard. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son, John Birkbeck Lubbock, second Baron Avebury (born 1858).
There is a drawing of Lubbock, executed by George Richmond in 1867, and a portrait, painted by Sir Hubert von Herkomer in 1911 (Royal Academy Pictures, 1912). A bust by Miss Kathleen Shaw was exhibited in 1900.
[Horace G. Hutchinson, Life of Sir John Lubbock, Lord Avebury, 2 vols., 1914; The Life-Work of Lord Avebury (Sir John Lubbock), 1834–1913, edited by his daughter, the Hon. Mrs. Adrian Grant Duff, 1924; Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol. lxxxvii, B, 1913–1914.]
A. S.