George Laurence Gomme

George Laurence Gomme (1853–1916) was an English folklorist and historian of local institutions. A founding member of the Folk-Lore Society in 1878, he served as its director and president and edited its publications, while pursuing a long career in London government that made him clerk to the London County Council from 1900 to 1914. He was knighted in 1911. His books, among them Folklore as an Historical Science, The Village Community and Ethnology in Folklore, argued that customs and tales preserve evidence of early social history. His wife, Alice Bertha Gomme, was a noted collector of children's games.