Lethbridge, Thomas C.

Lethbridge, Thomas C. (1901-1971)

Thomas Lethbridge was born in the west country of England in 1901. Records trace the family to the twelfth century. He came from a family of soldiers, explorers, churchmen, and members of Parliament. All were individualists, and many exhibited a certain eccentricity. Lethbridge told the story of how his grandfather was arrested on a first visit to London for leaning out of his bedroom window and shooting at a cockerel that kept him awake.

Although the family traditionally went to Oxford University, since Lethbridge had not learned Greek in school he had to go to Cambridge. There he studied archaeology and spent much time in the museum, where he became closely acquainted with the curator, Louis Clarke. When Lethbridge left Cambridge with his degree, Clarke invited him to participate in some archaeological digs. In the course of these, he became friends with such notables as Sir Cyril Fox and Sir William Ridgeway. Lethbridge subsequently became Keeper of Anglo-Saxon Antiquities at the Archaeological Museum at Cambridge University, where he stayed until 1957. He was also Director of Excavations of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

Lethbridge became acquainted with Margaret Alice Murray, Egyptologist at London University and author of The Witch Cult in Western Europe (1921) and The God of the Witches (1931). He was fascinated by her theory of Witchcraft being a pre-Christian nature religion. It fitted with what he had discovered doing archaeological excavations near Cambridge and uncovering a figure, or figures, akin to the Cerne Abbas Giant, carved into the turf of an Iron Age fort known as Wandlebury Camp. The detailed scene he resurrected had been long overgrown and lost, but, by judicial investigation and the sinking of test holes, Lethbridge uncovered a giant goddess figure, riding a horse and brandishing a sword, with the symbol of the moon behind her. He identified her with the goddess Matrona, Celtic equivalent of Diana, goddess of the Witches. Lethbridge wrote a book on the subject, Gogmagog: the Buried Gods, and some years later wrote a book on Witchcraft. In the latter work he expanded upon Murray's writings, looking especially at the goddess of the Witches.

After his retirement from Cambridge in 1957, Lethbridge wrote a number of books, including important works on psychokinesis, psychometry, dowsing, ESP, UFOs, healing, and telepathy. He died in Branscombe, Somerset, in 1971.