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Austen Henry Layard

The Right Honourable
Sir Austen Henry Layard
GCB
AustenHenryLayard.jpg
Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
In office
12 February 1852 – 21 February 1852
Monarch Queen Victoria
Prime Minister Lord John Russell
Preceded by The Lord Stanley of Alderley
Succeeded by Lord Stanley
In office
15 August 1861 – 26 June 1866
Monarch Queen Victoria
Prime Minister The Viscount Palmerston
The Earl Russell
Preceded by The Lord Wodehouse
Succeeded by Edward Egerton
First Commissioner of Works
In office
9 December 1868 – 26 October 1869
Monarch Queen Victoria
Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone
Preceded by Lord John Manners
Succeeded by Acton Smee Ayrton
Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire
In office
1877–1880
Monarch Queen Victoria
Preceded by The Marquess of Salisbury
Succeeded by The Earl of Dufferin
Personal details
Born 5 March 1817 (1817-03-05)
Paris, France
Died 5 July 1894 (1894-07-06) (aged 77)
London, England
Nationality British
Political party Liberal
Spouse(s) Mary Enid Evelyn Guest

Sir Austen Henry Layard GCB PC (/ˈɔːstɪn ˈhɛnr ˈlɛərd/; 5 March 1817 – 5 July 1894) was an English traveller, archaeologist, cuneiformist, art historian, draughtsman, collector, author, politician and diplomat, best known as the excavator of Nimrud and of Niniveh, where he uncovered a large proportion of the Assyrian palace reliefs known, and in 1851 the library of Ashurbanipal.

Layard was born in Paris, France, to a family of Huguenot descent. His father, Henry Peter John Layard, of the Ceylon Civil Service, was the son of Charles Peter Layard, Dean of Bristol, and grandson of Daniel Peter Layard the physician. Through his mother, Marianne, daughter of Nathaniel Austen, banker, of Ramsgate, his English descent was consolidated. His uncle was Benjamin Austen, a London solicitor and close friend of Benjamin Disraeli in the 1820s and 1830s. Edgar Leopold Layard the ornithologist was his brother.


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