282 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE 
often researched the provenances of his new 
acquisitions, as well as the circumstances of their 
discovery, with the realisation that contextual 
information enhanced their interest factor (ADP 
unpublished, 210 — 211). He also acquired from 
other collectors, including ‘the Barnes Collection’,”” 
and a collection of flints from Windmill Hill and 
Avebury that formerly belonged to G.D. Leslie. 
Passmore was dedicated to repatriating objects 
that he came across to the museum closest to their 
original provenance. This is evident from the 
number of objects he donated to various museums 
around the South West of England (see Appendix 
2). From time to time, he would sell an object to a 
museum, usually at the price that he paid for it, not 
for profit. His museum correspondents included 
Reginald Smith, Hercules Read, T:D. Kendrick, 
J.W. Brailsford, E.A. Wallis Budge, C.EC. Hawkes, 
and A.B. Tonnochy at the British Museum; W-.J. 
Arkell at the Natural History Museum, University 
of Oxford; C.H.V. Sutherland, Ian Robertson, 
Humphrey Case, Donald Harden and E.T. Leeds at 
the Ashmolean Museum; Herbert Bolton, 
Frederick $. Wallis and Leslie Grinsell at Bristol 
Museum and Art Gallery; R.S. Newall and Frank 
Stevens at Salisbury Museum; A.J.E. Cave at the 
Royal College of Surgeons; and R.J. Charleston, 
E.A. Lane, W.B. Honey, Bernard Rack, H.C. Smith 
and A.J.B. Wace at the Victoria and Albert 
Museum. His letters to curators, usually written to 
discuss a ‘most curious specimen’ in their field of 
interest, were always very congenial, and phrased as 
if he saw himself almost as their peer. He perhaps 
used his collection to fit into the world of museums 
and academia, with which he felt he had more in 
common than in his local environment. He wrote to 
W.J. Arkell at Oxford that there was ‘...not one man 
in the whole village who can get higher that [sic] 
racing, football, women and booze’. (Passmore UM, 
Dec 7, 1941) 
Passmore had been considering the fate of his 
collection since the 1930s, aware that well- 
provenanced archaeological specimens might one 
day be of interest to researchers. In 1930 he wrote to 
the Department of Woodwork at the Victoria and 
Albert Museum, inviting them to look at his 
collection for a possible bequest, saying, ‘I am the 
last of my race...’ (Passmore V&A, March 22, 1930). 
He also wrote to the Natural History Museum, 
London, and sent a list of the fossils he would like 
to bequeath to them, saying, ‘Have half promised to 
give all my things to the county museum at Devizes 
but think that the best fossils ought to be with you, 
am sure they would agree to this if you thought them 
acceptable.’(Passmore NHML, January 31, 1936). 
Passmore has been described as ‘incalculable’. 
This was particularly evident when he was in 
pursuit of a museum to receive his collection. In the 
early 1950s he approached Bristol City Museum 
and Art Gallery about the possibility of a bequest. 
Leslie Grinsell and some of the museum directors 
visited him in 1953 to view his collection. Passmore 
corresponded frequently with members of the 
museum staff about his collection in 1954. The 
bequest seemed to have been decided when 
Passmore changed his mind. It is unclear why 
Bristol fell out of his favour. At this time, his 
behaviour was often irrational, a characteristic that 
has been identified by Muensterberger (1994) as a 
trait common to obsessive collectors. Whatever the 
reason, Passmore was once again left in search of a 
home for his collection. 
In 1951, Humphrey Case, Assistant Keeper in 
the Department of Antiquities at the Ashmolean 
Museum, had been researching finds from the 
Seven Barrows, Lambourn, Berkshire, and 
contacted Passmore to see if there were objects from 
the site in his collection. Passmore invited Case to 
Callas House to see his collection. During the last 
few years of his life Passmore made frequent visits 
to the Ashmolean Museum. When Passmore 
eventually offered his collection to the Department 
of Antiquities in late 1954, it is possible that his 
decision was largely the result of his friendship 
with Case. He had also promised his collection of 
rare British ceramics to the Department of Western 
Art at the Ashmolean Museum, but fell out with the 
Keeper there when he accused the Department of 
damaging one of his most precious objects: a 
Chelsea cream jug. Consequently, the Department 
of British and Medieval Antiquities at the British 
Museum received his ceramic collection.” It is 
within the realm of possibility that the Antiquities 
Department at Ashmolean Museum might have 
fallen out of his favour eventually, but Passmore 
died within a few years of his collection coming to 
Oxford. The remainder was sold at Sotheby’s “by 
order of the public trustee’ in May and June 1959. 
DISCUSSION 
Like some of his fellow members of the WANHS, 
Passmore could be a difficult individual at times. 
He was demanding, self-righteous, impatient, 
intolerant of snobbery, and held inflexible opinions 
