Williamson, Robert W. (Robert Woods), 1857-1932

Solicitor and anthropologist Robert Williamson was born into the Lancashire family of British geologist Professor Willliam Crawford Williamson. Privately schooled, he continued his education at Owen College, where he graduated in engineering, then studied law at Clements Inn where he was “prizeman” at his final exams in 1897. His wife, Emily, whom he married in 1882, was a co-founder of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Law occupied him for the next decades as a solicitor in Manchester from 1879 to 1908. During this time he was president of the Manchester Law Society and a member of the London Law Society (1902), and from 1903 to 1910, a member of the court of governors of Victoria University of Manchester. He had been friends since 1908 with the anthropologist and zoologist Alfred Haddon and, abruptly changing career directions, turned to the field of anthropology at age 54. In 1910 he participated in the Cambridge expedition that Haddon led to the Torres Strait and British New Guinea. He eventually wrote six books on New Guinea and Polynesia .He was honorary treasurer of the Royal Anthropological Institute from 1912 to 1921 and vice-president of the institute from 1925 to 1927. Owens College bestowed on him an honorary M.Sc. in 1913. His major work was three volumes on The Social and Political Systems of Central Polynesia, the last volume of which was published posthumously.