America and delivered in Philadelphia the Bohlen lectures on The Religious Significance of Semitic Proper Names, and in 1912 he gave the Schweich lectures at the British Academy on the Relations between the Laws of Babylonia and the Laws of the Hebrew Peoples.
Unhappily the stress of his labours proved too much for him. His devotion to his work not only in Assyriology but also in raising the status of St. Catharine's caused a break-down in his health, and he resigned his mastership and canonry in 1919. He died at Winchester 20 August 1920, and is buried at Twyford, Hampshire. He had married in 1910 Agnes Sophia, daughter of the Rev. John Griffith, principal of Brighton College and later vicar of Sandridge, Hertfordshire. He had no children.
In 1904 Johns published Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts, and Letters, a collection of documents illustrated by full, ingenious, often brilliant discussions of the problems raised. His magnum opus was a corpus of eleven hundred contract tablets, in four volumes (one issued posthumously in 1923 by his wife), Assyrian Deeds and Documents (1898–1923). An Assyrian Domesday Book (1901) dealt with cuneiform records of plantations and their proprietors round the city of Harran. One of the results of Johns's familiarity with the contract literature was his vast collection of Assyrian proper names, which was embodied in Assyrian Personal Names, K. L. Tallqvist's work on the subject. He wrote two historical volumes, Ancient Assyria (1912) and Ancient Babylonia (1913), both containing much original work. In addition to numerous papers in scientific journals, Johns also wrote The Oldest Code of Laws in the World (1903), Ur-Engur (1908), A List of the Year Names of the First Dynasty of Babylon (1911), and A Survey of Recent Assyriology (1914–1915). The only drawback to his careful work was that he had never travelled in the Near East.
Johns's election to the mastership of St. Catharine's brought about a surprising change in the college. By his energy and attractive personality he raised it from a comparatively unimportant position in a way that astonished those who had known the college in the 'nineties. The number of its undergraduates greatly increased, and Johns entirely reorganized its management.
[Private information; personal knowledge.]
KEKEWICH, ROBERT GEORGE (1854–1914), major-general, was born 17 July 1854 at Brampford Speke, near Exeter, the second son of Trehawke Kekewich, of Peamore, Exeter, and nephew of the judge, Sir Arthur Kekewich [q.v.]. His mother was Charlotte, daughter of Captain George Peard, R.N. He was educated at Marlborough College and entered the army (102nd regiment) in 1874. He was transferred to the Buffs (East Kent regiment) in the same year, however, and soon saw active service, going to the Malay Peninsula with the Perak expedition of 1875–1876. In 1883 he received his captaincy, and afterwards served with the Sudan expedition of 1884–1885 as deputy assistant adjutant and quartermaster-general. For his services in this campaign he was awarded the brevet rank of major. Three years later he served as deputy assistant adjutant-general in the Sudan (Suakin), and in 1890 was made major in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. In the following year he was appointed military secretary to the commander-in-chief, Madras, a post which he held until 1897. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel in command of the first battalion Loyal North Lancashire regiment in 1898, and in the Boer War of 1899–1902 served as lieutenant-colonel, commanding all the troops in Griqualand West and Bechuanaland.
With the War in South Africa Kekewich's name will live in history, for it fell to him to defend the town of Kimberley, which was besieged by the Boers from 15 October 1899 to 15 February 1900. The masterly dispositions of the small and almost entirely improvised force under his command marked him as a soldier of extraordinary acumen. The extremely difficult nature of the area besieged demanded far more than average military skill for its defence, and his conduct of it elicited admiration and commendation in the highest terms from the commander-in-chief, Lord Roberts, and from Lord Kitchener. Colonel Kekewich's task, a heavy responsibility under any conditions, was made far more exacting by the presence in the town of Cecil Rhodes and his co-directors of the De Beers Company, whose outlook seemed to be affected by personal considerations, with little regard for the actual military situation. The ready tact of the commander, however, and his steady devotion to duty, reduced the dangerous possibilities of the situation to a minimum; and, though his subsequent career was prejudiced by the influence of Rhodes, yet his
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