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Thomas Charles Lethbridge

Thomas Charles Lethbridge (23 March 1901 – 30 September 1971), better known as T.C. Lethbridge, was an English archaeologist, parapsychologist, and explorer. A specialist in Anglo-Saxon archaeology, he served as Keeper of Anglo-Saxon Antiquities at the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology from 1923 to 1957, and over the course of his lifetime authored sixteen books on various subjects, becoming particularly well known for his advocacy of dowsing.Born in Somerset to a wealthy family, Lethbridge was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, during the course of which he attended an expedition to Jan Mayen island, becoming part of the first group to successfully climb the Beerenberg. After a failed second expedition to the Arctic Circle, he became involved in archaeology. In 1923 he was appointed to the voluntary position of Keeper of Anglo-Saxon Antiquities at the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, in this capacity carrying out excavations of various sites around Britain. His claims regarding the existence of Iron Age hill figures on Wandlebury Hill caused significant controversy within the archaeological community, with most believing that Lethbridge had erroneously misidentified a natural feature. Lethbridge's methodology and theories were widely deemed unorthodox, and in turn he became increasingly critical of the archaeological profession.Resigning in 1957, Lethbridge moved with his wife to Branscombe, Devon. There, he devoted himself to researching paranormal phenomenon, publishing a string of books on the subject aimed at a popular rather than academic audience. Most of this research entailed his research into the use of pendulums for dowsing, although in other publications he championed the witch-cult hypothesis of Margaret Murray, purported his own theories as to the nature of ghosts, and argued that extraterrestrial species were involved in shaping human evolution; in this he came to embrace and perpetuate the esoteric ideas of the earth mysteries movement. Although his work in parapsychology was derided and ignored as pseudo-scientific by the academic establishment, he attracted a cult following, with his work being posthumously championed by esotericists like Colin Wilson and Julian Cope. In 2011 he was made the subject of a biography by Terry Welbourn.