DARWIN'S APPRENTICE - A VICTORIAN ATTENBOROUGH: John Lubbock (1834-1913)

Sir John Lubbock (1834-1913), aristocrat, banker, politician and gentleman-scientist, was a towering figure of Victorian England who reshaped science, archaeology and even the social calendar. He was a household name by the 1870s and author of popular science books. As a young neighbour and friend to Charles Darwin he was an early and influential champion of evolutionary theory and dubbed ‘Darwin’s Apprentice’.

     At some point in the late 1850s or early 60s WGL first met John Lubbock. Over the next three decades their paths crossed frequently at various work, education and social meetings in London and West Kent. It may be too much to suggest they were friends, but they were certainly associates. In 1889 they both joined the new London County Council (Lubbock as Chairman) and they would have met twice weekly. The two men were similar ages (WGL was 3 years older) and shared almost identical political views and interests, albeit while active on different levels of the ‘British Beehive’ and all its distinctive positions of wealth and privilege. There had once been a ‘Lemon, Buller and Lubbock’ bank with Cornish interests and they must have talked about shared origins at some point. They met socially too - Lubbock was Honorary President of the West Kent Natural History Society which played a large part in WGL’s life (WGL was President 1880-1882).

    Lubbock’s contributions to natural science were foundational. His meticulous experiments proved that ants, bees, and wasps possess colour vision and navigate using landmarks. (The display-case ants-nest I made as a child - an inch or so of soil sandwiched between two panes of glass - was a design invented by Lubbock). As well as being a pioneer of animal behaviour studies Lubbock revolutionized our understanding of human history with his landmark 1865 book Pre-historic Times. In it he coined words such as "Paleolithic" and "Neolithic “and his work effectively decoupled the study of human origins from biblical chronology, establishing archaeology as a bona-fide scientific discipline (pun partly intended). The religious implications may have been the only thing Lubbock and WGL disagreed on, the latter’s position close to something like modern-day ‘Intelligent Design’. Lubbock was agnostic (a term coined by ‘Darwin’s Bulldog’ Thomas Huxley in 1869).

     Beyond research, Lubbock was a passionate advocate for conservation and public education. Even before Etta Lemon founded the RSPB, Lubbock had sponsored the 1880 Wild Birds Protection Act in Parliament. Thirty years before WGL’s son Frank successfully fought to conserve the commons of Redhill from developers, Lubbock had bought a large portion of Avebury to protect its megalithic stones. He then drafted the Ancient Monuments Protection Act of 1882 which successfully created the first legal framework to preserve Britain's historical heritage.

    Perhaps Lubbock’s largest legacy was as a social reformer, something Mark Lemon’s Punch often treated with great humour.  In 1871, driven by a deep concern for the well-being of the working class, Lubbock introduced the Bank Holidays Act. This historic legislation created the first official, secular paid holidays for workers, which were affectionately known for decades as "St. Lubbock's Days." He also secured the Early Closing Act of 1904 to limit grueling working hours for shop assistants. Ironic for a man who celebrated the busy bees of the insect world.