Gertrude Caton Thompson

1888-1985

Gertrude Caton Thompson was born to William Caton-Thompson and Ethel Page in 1888, London, England. She attended the Miss Hawtrey’s Eastbourne in Paris and the Newnham College in Cambridge. From 1915-19 (World War I) she worked for the British Ministry of Shipping and she attended the Paris peace conference in 1919.

Gertrude Thompson worked as an archeologist at Abydos and Oxyrhynchus. While she was studying at the British School of Archaeology in Egypt from 1924 to1926, with the help of Elinor Wight Gardner, she began the first archaeological survey of the Northern Faiyum. She continued working in Northern Faiyum the next two years, being a field director for the Royal Anthropological Institution. From 1928 to 1929, she excavated the famous ruins in Zimbabwe. In Southern Rhodesia she directed stratigraphic studies of the Zimbabwe architectural remains. She also worked in Kharga Oasis, and Hadhramaut. Her many studies dismissed the popular thought of the ruins as being remains of biblical Ophir and Phoenician origin, her findings were reported in Zimbabwe Culture (1931). Gertrude Caton Thompson died April 18 of 1985, in Worcestershire, England.

References:

“Caton-Thompson, Gertrude” EncyclopediaBritannica<http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=22171> 11 Oct. 2001

The International Who’s Who 48 Edition, 1984-85 London: EuropaPublications, 1984.

Distinguished Women of Past and Present http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/caton-th.html.

Contemporary Authors online. The Gale group, 1999. PEN, 0000016624.

Written by Karen Ortiz

Edited by Marcy L. Voelker, 2007