Reginald Allender Smith

Reginald Allender Smith (1873 – 18 January 1940) was an archaeologist of Palaeolithic to late Anglo-Saxon materials.[1] He was Keeper of British and Medieval Antiquities at the British Museum from 1927-1938, and authored several books and British Museum catalogues.[2][1]

Smith attended University College, Oxford. He was first appointed to a job at the British Museum in 1898, and was succeeded by T D Kendrick upon his retirement from the role of Keeper.[1] He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1903, serving as Vice President from 1926-1929 and as Director from 1929-1940.[2][1]

He was on the side of the skeptics during the inquiry as to whether or not Piltdown man was genuine, known for having offered a single line of testimony concerning a "bone implement" purported to be a tool. He remarked simply, it was reported, on "the possibility of the bone having been found and whittled in recent times."[3]

Selected publications
  • Smith, Reginald Allender (1907–1909). "Notes on Bronze Hanging-Bowls and Enamelled Mounts". Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London. 2nd series. Society of Antiquaries. XXII: 63–86.
  • A Guide to the Antiquities of Roman Britain in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities. London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1922.
  • British Museum Guide to Anglo-Saxon Antiquities. British Museum. Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities, 1923. Reprinted: Ipswich, Suffolk: Anglia Pub., 1993.
  • Flints: An Illustrated Manual of the Stone Age for Beginners. London: British Museum, 1928.

Notes
  1. "Obituaries". The Times. 20 January 1940. p. 9. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  2. L, E. T. (April 1940). "Reginald Allender Smith: died 18th January 1940". The Antiquaries Journal. 20 (2): 291–293. doi:10.1017/S0003581500009732. ISSN 1758-5309.
  3. Quoted in Charles Dawson and A. Smith Woodward, "On a Bone Implement from Piltdown (Sussex)." Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society Vol 71 (1915, p. 144). See also Joseph Sidney Weiner and Chris Stringer's The Piltdown Forgery: The classic Account of the Most Famous and Successful Hoax in Science. Oxford University Press, 2003. p.50.


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