Lubbock, SIR JOHN, BARON AVEBURY (c. 1900), son of the astronomer and mathematician, Sir J. W. Lubbock (1803-65), was born in London, April 30, 1834, and educated at a private school and at Eton. At fourteen he entered his father's banking-house, and in 1856 became a partner. He was chosen honorary secretary to the Association of London Bankers, first president of the Institute of Bankers, and served in the International Coinage Commission, as a member of the Public School Commission, the Advancement of Science Commission, the Education Commission, and the Gold and Silver Commission. In 1865 and 1868 he contested West Kent unsuccessfully in the Liberal interest, but was returned for Maidstone in 1870; and on losing his seat in 1880 he was returned for London University—since 1886 as a Liberal Unionist. As a politician he has devoted himself chiefly to financial and educational subjects, and has succeeded in passing more than a dozen important public measures, including the Bank Holidays Act (1871), the Bills of Exchange Bill, which regulates the whole law relating to cheques, bills, and promissory notes, the Ancient Monuments Bill (1882), and the Shop Hours Bill (1889). He is an honorary graduate of Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Dublin, and Würzburg; was vice-chancellor of the university of London from 1872 to 1880; is a trustee of the British Museum; and has acted as president of many of the scientific societies, being president of the British Association in 1881. President of the London Chamber of Commerce, and chairman of the London County Council, he is best known as a man of science for his researches on the ancient vestiges and remains of man, and on the habits of insects, especially bees and ants.
Besides more than a hundred memoirs to various societies, he has published Prehistoric Times, as illustrated by Ancient Remains and the Manners and Customs of Modern Savages (1865); The Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man (1870); The Origin and Metamorphoses of Insects (1874); On British Wildflowers, considered in Relation to Insects (1875); Addresses, Political and Educational (1879); Scientific Lectures (1879); Monograph of the Thysanura and Collembola; Fifty Years of Science, an inaugural address to the British Association (1881); Ants, Bees, and Wasps (1882); Flowers, Fruits, and Leaves; On Representation; The Senses and Instincts of Animals (1888); and The Pleasures of Life (1887; 20th ed. 1890; 2d series, 1889); The Beauties of Nature (1892); The Use of Life (1894); and an interesting work on The Scenery of Switzerland (1896).