Sir John Lubbock

Sir John Lubbock (1834–1913), later Lord Avebury, was an English banker, politician, naturalist and archaeologist. He grew up near Charles Darwin in Kent and became his friend and supporter. In Prehistoric Times he introduced the terms Paleolithic and Neolithic, and he studied ants, bees and wasps with patient experiments. As a Liberal member of Parliament he passed the Bank Holidays Act of 1871 and an early law to protect ancient monuments, and he bought the stone circle at Avebury to save it. His popular books of reflection, The Pleasures of Life and The Use of Life, sold in vast numbers.