Gertrude Caton-Thompson

Gertrude Caton Thompson
Portrait of Gertrude Caton Thompson, by Ramsey & Muspratt, Cambridge, 1938. courtesy The Royal Anthropological Institute
Born	Gertrude Caton Thompson (1888-02-01)1 February 1888 London
Died	18 April 1985(1985-04-18) (aged 97) Broadway, Worcestershire.
Nationality	British
Education	British School of Archaeology in Egypt; Newnham College, Cambridge
Occupation	archaeologist
Known for	Abydos, Egypt; Oxyrhynchus; Faiyum

Gertrude Caton Thompson, FBA (1 February 1888 – 18 April 1985) was an influential English archaeologist at a time when participation by women in the discipline was uncommon.

Gertrude Caton Thompson was born to William Caton Thompson and Ethel Page in 1888 in London, England, and attended private schools in Paris and in Eastbourne, including the Links School, run by Miss Hawtrey. Her interest in archaeology began on a trip to Egypt with her mother in 1911, followed by a series of lectures on Ancient Greece given by Sarah Paterson at the British Museum. An inheritance received in 1912 helped ensure her financial independence and support her later excavations. During World War I, she worked for the British Ministry of Shipping as part of which she attended the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. In 1921 Caton Thompson embarked on studies at University College London where she was taught by Margaret Murray, Flinders Petrie and Dorothea Bate, excavating in Upper Egypt during the winter of that year . The following year she began attending courses at Newnham College, Cambridge, before joining further excavations in Egypt with Petrie and Guy Brunton in 1924.

During the 1920s she worked as an archaeologist, primarily in Egypt for the British School of Archaeology Egypt, although she also conducted fieldwork in Malta. In Egypt she participated in excavations at a number of sites including Abydos,Badari, and Qau el Kebir. Caton Thompson took a special interest in all aspects of Prehistoric Egypt and was one of the first archaeologists to look at the full-time spectrum from the Palaeolithic through to Predynastic Egypt. Many of these finds are now in the British Museum's collection.