Alice Grenfell

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.

Life[edit]

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]

Works include[edit]

• The Iconography of Bes, and of Phoenician Bes-Hand Scarabs, 1902^[4]
• The Grenfell Collection of Scarabs, 1916^[7]

References[edit]