Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Lewis, Bunnell
LEWIS, BUNNELL (1824–1908), classical archaeologist, born in London on 26 July 1824, was the eldest of the twelve children of William Jones Lewis of London by his first wife Mary Bunnell, a descendant of Philip Henry, the nonconformist divine. Samuel Savage Lewis [q. v.] was his half-brother. Educated under Dr. Jack- son, afterwards bishop of London, at Islington proprietary sohool and at University College, London, Lewis, after reading with Charles Rann Kennedy [q. v.], graduated B.A. in 1843 in the University of London, obtaining the university scholarship in classics. He became fellow of University College in 1847, and proceeded M.A. in classics in 1849, taking the gold medal, then first awarded. He waa appointed the same year professor of Latin at Queen's College, Cork, an appointment which he held until 1905. He laboured to make archæology an integral part of university education, and with that end in view collected objects of art and antiquity for the museum of his college. At the foundation of the Queen's University in Ireland he took an active part in its administration, and held the office of examiner in Latin for four years.
Lewis early devoted his attention to archæology, being elected F.S.A. on 2 Feb. 1860, and was in 1883 appointed foreign corresponding associate of the National Society of Antiquaries of France. In 1873-1874 he delivered courses of lectures on classical archæology at University College in connection with the Slade School of Art. The inaugural lecture was published. His special study was the survival of Roman antiquities in various parts of Europe, and his inquiries took him during the summer recesses to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Sicily, and Turkey. His discoveries of Roman antiquities, which shed much new light on the interpretation of Latin literature, were embodied in papers contributed between 1875 and 1907 to the 'Archæological Journal.'
Lewis died at his residence, 49 Sunday's Well Road, Cork, on 2 July 1908, and was buried at Cork. He was twice married : (1) on 2 Oct. 1855 to Jane (d. 31 Dec. 1867), second daughter of the Rev. John Whitley, D.D., chancellor of Killaloe; and (2) on 4 Oct. 1871 to Louise Emily (d Nov. 1882), daughter of Admiral Bowes-Watson of Cambridge. He left no issue. He bequeathed to University College, London, his classical and archaeological library and 1000l. for a 'Bunnell Lewis prize' for proficiency in original Latin verse and in translations from Latin and Greek.
Besides his archæological papers and contributions to the second (revised) edition of Dr. William Smith's Latin Dictionary, he published a 'Letter to J. Robson, Esq., on the Slade Professorships of Fine Art' (1869) and 'Remarks on Ivory Cabinets in the Possession of Wickham Flowor, Esq., (1871).
[Summary of the Life of the Rev. George Lewin, D.D., and Genealogy, 1873; Q.C.C., conducted by the Students of Queen's College, Cork Constitution, 3 July 1908; Irish Times, 3 July 1908; The Times, 3 17 Aug. 1908 (will); Men and Women of the Time, 1899; information kindly supplied by Miss Mary Bunnell Barton.]