Persona

Dodgson, Aquila

1829-1919

British congregational minister; he was born in Elland, Yorkshire, 9 Sept. 1829 and baptized in Halifax, 6 Dec. 1829, son of Joshua D., a dyer, and his wife Hannah; he became a minister in Hull, but resigned in 1870 owing to the failure of his voice, becoming a cotton-spinner at Ashton-under-Lyne; he was very interested in Egyptology and arranged lectures by Amelia Edwards and Petrie, and raised funds for the promotion of Egyptology in Manchester; he retired in 1891, and in the winter 1891-2 visited Egypt, spending some time with Petrie at Amarna; he later lived in Leeds and arranged the coins in the museum there; he was also interested in astronomy and built an observatory in his garden; Dodgson's name is associated with an important Demotic papyrus obtained in Egypt in 1881 by the Revd Elkanah Armitage and published by Griffith, PSBA 31. 100, 289; it was presented by his family to the Ashmolean Museum in 1932; another Dodgson papyrus is in Melbourne; his correspondence is in the Griffith Institute, Oxford; he died in Headingley, Leeds, 10 Aug. 1919.

• Who Was Who in Egyptology (4th ed. 2012), 156-7.