Henry Balfour

Henry Balfour FRS (11 April 1863 in Croydon – 9 February 1939) was a British archaeologist, and the first curator of the Pitt Rivers Museum.

He was President of the Royal Anthropological Institute, the Museums Association, the Folklore Society, the Royal Geographical Society, and a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Henry Balfour, the only son of Lewis Balfour (1833–1885), silk broker of Croydon, and Sarah Walker Comber (1836–1916), was born in 1863. His parents had been married on 28 July 1857. He had two older sisters: Edith Balfour (born c. 1859) and Marian Balfour (born c. 1860). His father died on 1 May 1885, at 15 Hanover Terrace, Regent's Park, London, at 52 years of age.

In 1887 Henry married Edith Marie Louise Wilkins, only daughter of Robert Francis Wilkins of Kingswear, south Devon. They had one son, Lewis Balfour (1887–1974). The Balfours lived at 11 Norham Gardens, Oxford before moving to Langley Lodge, Headington, Oxford later in life. A few months after the death of his wife, Balfour died in his home in Headington, Oxford, on 9 February 1939.

Balfour was educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Oxford (matriculated 1881-graduated 1885), and took Honours Mods and later the final school of animal morphology in 1885. In 1884 the University of Oxford accepted the collection of ethnological and archaeological specimens made and arranged by General Augustus Pitt Rivers: Professor H. N. Moseley, in whose charge the Pitt Rivers Museum was placed by the University, invited Balfour, who was one of his students, to assist in the installation of the collection in the new museum building. Moseley had recognised the keen and alert intelligence of Balfour, his love of animals, and his skill as a draughtsman. Balfour continued to work under Moseley's supervision till Moseley's death in 1891, when the whole responsibility devolved on Balfour. Balfour was appointed Curator in 1893 and continued in that position until his death. That a large and unique museum has grown up around the original nucleus of the Pitt Rivers collection is entirely due to Balfour's erudition and devotion.

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