VOL. XVIII. (I) OBITUARY 



OBITUARY 



GEORGE BACKHOUSE WITTS, C.E., J. P. 



By the death, on 6th September, 1912, of Mr George Backhouse Witts, 

 the Club has lost a Member to whom it is greatly indebted for contributions 

 to our knowledge of the Archaeology of the County. The Rev. W. S. Symonds, 

 Rector of Pendock, by his investigations on the banks of the Wye, proved the 

 occupation of the western part of Dean Forest by Pala;olithic man. The 

 opening of the long tumuli at Uley (near Dursley), and at Belas Knapp (near 

 Winchcombe) , revealed nuniei-ous relics of early Neolithic men, but it was 

 for Mr Witts, by his discovery and investigations of the West Tump long bar- 

 row (near Birdlip). to demonstrate with accurate detail their mode of life and 

 the method of their sepulture, a work in which he had the invaluable help of 

 Professor RoUeston, of Oxford. Subsequently he made a close study of the 

 Prehistoric and Roman antiquities of the shire of Gloucester, and published 

 the result in an A rchceoloiiical Handbook of the County of Gloucester, in which he 

 enumerated 40 long barrows, 126 round barrows, 113 ancient camjis, 26 

 Roman ^'illas, and a large number of British and Roman roads. Later in- 

 vestigations have added to these lists, but Mr Witts's book still remains the 

 most authoritatixe work on the subject. At the time of his death he was 

 engaged in collaboration with our colleague Dr E. T. Wilson, of Cheltenham, 

 in the compilation of a list of the liint implements, arrow-heads, found in Glou- 

 cestershire. The work is being continued by Dr E. T. Wilson, and, when 

 completed, will throw a flood of light upon a somewhat dark period in the 

 early occupation of the count}' by i)rimitive man. T. Sawyer 



E. A. WILSON, M.D. 



Although Dr E. A. Wilson, one of the heroes of the ill-fated Scott Expedi- 

 tion to the South Pole, was not a Member of the Cotteswold Club, he was the 

 son of an esteemed colleague, and a brief note of his work may fitly find a 

 place in our obituary page. lAkc his father, he was a Naturalist by heredity, 

 and training, and to him more than to any man. is the scientific world indebted 

 for an addition to our knov.lcdge of the fauna of the Antarctic regions. An 

 artist as well as a naturalist, he has bequeathed to us a series of pictures of 

 Antarctic life, such as had never before been seen, while the value of his con- 

 tributions to physical science is cordially acknowledged by the leading 

 Societies in Europe and America. It is gratifying to know that his name 

 will be perpetuated by a memorial in Cheltenham, the home of his birth and 

 early education. J. Sawyer 



