Editing W. H. R. Rivers (section)

===Family background===

W. H. R. Rivers was born in 1864 at Constitution Hill, [[Chatham, Kent]], son of Elizabeth (née Hunt) (16 October 1834 – 13 November 1897) and Henry Frederick Rivers (7 January 1830 – 9 December 1911).

Records from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries show the Rivers family to be solidly middle-class, with many [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]], [[Church of England]] and [[Royal Navy]] associations.<ref name="slobodin">{{cite book | author = Richard Slobodin | title = W. H. R. Rivers: Pioneer Anthropologist and Psychiatrist of the "Ghost Road" | edition = 2nd | year = 1997 | location = [[Stroud, Gloucestershire|Stroud]] | publisher = [[Sutton Publishing]] | isbn = 0-7509-1490-4 }}</ref> Notable members were [[Sailor|Gunner]] William Rivers and his son, Midshipman William Rivers, both of whom served aboard [[HMS Victory|HMS ''Victory'']], [[Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson|Nelson's]] flagship.<ref name="slobodin"/>

[[Image:Turner, The Battle of Trafalgar (1822).jpg|right|thumb|[[HMS Victory|HMS ''Victory'']]]]

The senior Rivers was the master gunner aboard the ''Victory''. He kept a commonplace book (now held in the [[Royal Naval Museum]] library in [[Portsmouth]]); it has revealed and preserved the thoughts of many of the sailors aboard the ''Victory.''<ref name="trafalgar">{{cite book |author1=Tim Clayton |author2=Phil Craig | title = Trafalgar: The Men, The Battle, The Storm |url=https://archive.org/details/trafalgarmenbatt0000clay |url-access=registration | year = 2004 | publisher = Hodder}}</ref>

His son Midshipman Rivers, who claimed to be "the man who shot the man who fatally wounded Lord Nelson",<ref name="slobodin"/> was a model of heroism in the [[Battle of Trafalgar]]. The seventeen-year-old midshipman nearly lost his foot when it was struck by a grenade; it was attached to him only "by a Piece of Skin abought 4&nbsp;inch above the ankle".<ref name="trafalgar"/>  Rivers asked first for his shoes, then told the gunner's mate to look after the guns, and told [[Captain Hardy]] that he was going down to the cockpit.<ref name="trafalgar"/> He endured the amputation of his leg four inches below the knee, without anaesthetic. According to legend, he did not cry out once during that nor during the consequent sealing of the wound with hot tar.<ref name="trafalgar"/> When Gunner Rivers, anxious about his son's welfare, went to the cockpit to ask after him, his son called out, "Here I am, Father, nothing is the matter with me; only lost my leg and that in a good cause."<ref name="trafalgar"/>

After the battle, the senior Rivers wrote a poem about his remarkable son, entitled "Lines on a Young Gentleman that lost his leg onboard the Victory in the Glorious action at Trafalgar":

{{poemquote|May every comfort Bless thy future life,
And smooth thy cares with fond and tender wife.
Which of you all Would not have freely died,
To Save Brave Nelson There Dear Country's Pride.}}

Born to Lieutenant William Rivers, R.N., and his wife, stationed at [[Deptford]],<ref name="slobodin"/> Henry Frederick Rivers followed many family traditions in being educated at [[Trinity College, Cambridge]] and entering the church.<ref name="slobodin"/> Having earned his [[Bachelor of Arts]] in 1857, he was ordained as a [[Church of England]] priest in 1858,<ref name="slobodin"/> and had a career that would span almost 50 years. In 1904, he was forced to tender his resignation due to "infirmities of sight and memory".<ref name="faith's">{{cite book |author=The Council of St Faith's Church, Maidstone, Kent | title = Minutes of Council Meeting| year = 1904 | location = [[Maidstone, Kent]], Centre for Kentish Studies}}</ref>

[[Image:Offham Church.jpg|left|thumb|Image of the stained glass window of the church in [[Offham, Kent]], where Henry Rivers was curate from 1880 to 1889]]

In 1863, having obtained a curacy at Chatham in addition to a chaplaincy of the Medway Union, Henry Rivers was sufficiently established to marry Elizabeth Hunt, who was living with her brother James in [[Hastings]], not far from Chatham.<ref name="slobodin"/> He was later appointed to curacies in Kent at St Mary's, Chatham (1863–69), Tudeley (1877–80) and Offham (1880–9), and subsequently as Vicar of St Faith's, Maidstone from 1889 to 1904.<ref>''Cambridge University Alumni, 1261–1900'' – A Cambridge Alumni Database (ACAD)</ref>

The Hunts, like the Rivers family, were established with naval and Church of England connections.<ref name="slobodin"/> One of those destined for the pulpit was Thomas (1802–1851), but some quirk of originality set him off into an unusual career.<ref name="slobodin"/>  While an undergraduate at Cambridge, Thomas Hunt had a friend who stammered badly and his efforts to aid the affected student led him to leave the university without taking a degree in order to make a thorough study of speech and its defects.<ref name="BoaseODNB">{{cite ODNB |first1=G. C. |last1=Boase |author1-link=G. C. Boase |first2=Roger (revised) |last2=Hutchins |title=Thomas Perkins Lowman Hunt (1802–1851) |year=2004 |id=14208 }}</ref> He built up a good practice as a speech therapist and was patronised by [[John Forbes (physician)|Sir John Forbes MD FRS]]. Forbes referred pupils to him for twenty-four years.<ref name="BoaseODNB"/>  Hunt's most famous case came about in 1842. George Pearson, the chief witness in a case related to an attempted attack on [[Queen Victoria]] by John Francis, was brought into court but was incapable of giving his evidence. After a fortnight's instruction from Hunt, he spoke easily, a fact certified by the sitting magistrate.<ref name="BoaseODNB"/> Hunt died in 1851, survived by his wife Mary and their two children. His practice was passed on to his son, James.<ref name="Stammer">{{cite book | author =James Hunt | title =Stammering and stuttering, their nature and treatment| publisher = London | year = 1861}}</ref>

James Hunt (1833–1869) was an exuberant character, giving to each of his ventures his boundless energy and self-confidence.<ref name="slobodin"/> Taking up his father's legacy with great zeal, by the age of 21 Hunt had published his compendious work ''Stammering and Stuttering, Their Nature and Treatment''. This went into six editions during his lifetime and was reprinted again in 1870, just after his death, and for an eighth time in 1967 as a landmark in the history of speech therapy.<ref name="slobodin"/> In the introduction to the 1967 edition of the book, [[Elliot Schaffer]] notes that in his short lifetime, James Hunt is said to have treated over 1,700 cases of speech impediment, firstly in his father's practice and later at his own institute, Ore House near Hastings.<ref name="schaffer">{{cite book |author1=James Hunt |author2=Elliot Schaffer | title = Stammering and stuttering, their nature and treatment|url=https://archive.org/details/stammeringandst01huntgoog | edition = 8th | year = 1967 | publisher = New York: Hafner Publishing Co}}</ref> He set up the latter with the aid of a doctorate he had purchased in 1856 from the [[University of Giessen]] in Germany.<ref name="BrockODNB">{{cite ODNB |first=W. H. |last=Brock |title=James Hunt (1833–1869) |origyear=2004 |year=2020 |id=14194 }}</ref>

In later, expanded editions, ''Stammering and Stuttering'' begins to reflect Hunt's growing passion for anthropology, exploring the nature of language usage and speech disorders in non-European peoples.<ref name="slobodin"/> In 1856, Hunt had joined the [[Ethnological Society of London]] and by 1859 he was its joint secretary.<ref name="slobodin"/> But many of the members disliked his attacks on the religious and humanitarian agencies represented by missionaries and the anti-slavery movement.<ref name="BrockODNB"/>

As a result of the antagonism, Hunt founded the [[Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland|Anthropological Society]] and became its president.<ref name="BrockODNB"/> Nearly 60 years later, his nephew W. He. R. Rivers was selected for this position.<ref name="langham">{{cite book | author =Ian Langham | title =The building of British social anthropology: W. H. R. Rivers and his Cambridge disciples in the development of kinship studies| publisher =London: Reidel | year = 1981}}</ref> Hunt's efforts were integral to the [[British Association for the Advancement of Science]] (BAAS) accepting anthropology in 1866 as a discipline.<ref name="slobodin"/>

Even by Victorian standards, Hunt was a decided racist.<ref name="slobodin"/> His paper "On a Negro's Place in Nature", delivered before the BAAS in 1863, was met with hisses and catcalls.<ref name="BrockODNB"/> What Hunt considered "a statement of the simple facts"<ref name="negro">{{cite book | author =James Hunt | title =On a negro's place in nature| publisher =London: Trübner | year = 1863}}</ref> was thought by others to be a defence of the subjection and slavery of Africans in the Americas, and support of the belief in the plurality of human species.<ref name="BrockODNB"/>

In addition to his extremist views, Hunt led the society to incur heavy debts.<ref name="slobodin"/>  The controversies surrounding his conduct told on his health and, on 29 August 1869, Hunt died of "inflammation of the brain". <!-- Age? -->He was survived by his widow, Henrietta Maria, and five children.<ref name="BrockODNB"/>

His speech therapy practice was passed onto Hunt's brother-in-law, Henry Rivers, who had been working with him for some time.<ref name="BrockODNB"/> Rivers inherited many of Hunt's established patients, most notably The Reverend Charles L. Dodgson (better known as [[Lewis Carroll]]), who had been a regular visitor to Ore House.<ref name= Kath>{{cite book | author = Katharine Rivers | title = Memories of Lewis Carroll | location = [[Hamilton, Ontario]] | publisher = University Library Press, [[McMaster University]] | year = 1976 | oclc = 2319358 }}</ref>

Hunt left his books to his nephew William Rivers, who refused them, thinking that they would be of no use to him.<ref name="PsychEth">{{cite book | author =W. H. R. Rivers (with an introduction by Grafton Elliot Smith)| title = Psychology and Ethnology| publisher =London | year = 1926}}</ref>