John Layard

John Willoughby Layard (27 November 1891 – 26 November 1974) was an English anthropologist and psychologist.

Layard was born in London, son of the essayist and literary writer George Somes Layard. He grew up first at Malvern, and in c 1902 moved to Bull's Cliff, Felixstowe. He was educated at Bedales School. In Suffolk he fell under the influence of his aunt, the poet and archaeologist Nina Frances Layard, who had become established in Ipswich in 1889. With his mother Eleanor he occasionally assisted Nina Layard in her searches for palaeoliths in the Ipswich area, and through her was introduced to Professor A. C. Haddon of Cambridge. She also had direct contacts with Professors William Ridgeway and McKenny Hughes, and with Wynfrid Laurence Henry Duckworth. Her companion, Mary Outram (granddaughter of Sir James Outram), was a cousin of Baron Anatole von Hügel, who was then setting up the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Downing Street site, to which John later contributed largely. John studied in Germany in around 1909–10, and was provided by his aunt with an introduction to Dr Leopold Pfeiffer, the Imperial Surgeon, who had written a work of palaeoethnography and greeted him warmly in homage to Nina's work and hospitality.

John attended King's College, Cambridge, and gained a degree in modern languages, but through his contacts became interested in anthropology. In 1914 he accompanied W. H. R. Rivers, one of the leading anthropologists of the day, on an expedition to the New Hebrides (what is today Vanuatu). Layard travelled with his mentor Rivers. They were accompanied by Professor A. C. Haddon and his students, A. R. Radcliffe-Brown and Bronisław Malinowski. Layard and Rivers travelled through the New Hebrides before stopping at Atchin, a small islet off the northeastern shore of Malekula.

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