George Henry Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers

George Henry Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers was a British anthropologist and eugenicist, born in London on May 22, 1890, and dead on June 17, 1966. He came from the Pitt-Rivers family, whose name is closely tied to British anthropology through his grandfather Augustus Pitt Rivers and the museum in Oxford that bears the family name.

Early in life, he appeared headed for a notable academic career. He served in the British Army during the First World War and later carried out anthropological work, publishing in the field while moving in elite intellectual and social circles.

That promising start is inseparable from the politics he later embraced. By the 1930s he had become associated with far-right causes, including anti-Bolshevik and anti-Semitic writing, support for Oswald Mosley, and admiration for fascist leaders; during the Second World War, the British government interned him. Because of that record, he is remembered today less for lasting contributions to anthropology than for the troubling extremism that overtook his public life.