Ludovic McLellan Mann

Ludovic McLellan Mann (1869 in Langside, Glasgow–1955) was a wealthy Scottish archaeologist and antiquarian.^[1] By profession, Mann was a chartered accountant, actuary and insurance broker who was chairman of the firm Mann, Ballantyne & Co, Insurance Brokers and Independent Neutral Advisors that had offices in Glasgow and London. Mann invented consequential fire loss indemnity,^[a] However, Mann was well known as an self-taught amateur archaeologist who had a fascination with the prehistory of south-west Scotland with a particular focus on Argyll and Glasgow areas. His enthusiasm for prehistory was equally matched with his compulsion to promote and publicise his work as much as possible by publishing fieldnotes of his expeditions in both the national and international press. It also included him directing tours of his own excavations and site discoveries.^[3] This led to Mann being labelled as Glasgow's original media influencer.^[3] However being self-taught, meant his theories were often in disagreement with maistream archeological academia.^[4]

Ludovic Mann was born in Langside, Glasgow.^[5] His father was the Glasgow accountant John Mann (1827–1910), who lost a fortune^[5] after the spectacular collapse in October 1878 of the City of Glasgow Bank^[5] but narrowly avoided bankruptcy.^[6] His mother was the novelist Mary Newton Harrington (1834–1917) who wrote the novels, "Sandy and other Folk" and "Marion Emery and her friends : a tale of southern Scotland" and "The Wooin' o' Mysie".^[7] The couple had a family of four sons and two daughters.^[8] The eldest son was John Mann (1863–1955), a prominent accountant and businessman who became Director of Contracts in the Ministry of Munitions. Mann used cost accounting to save large amounts of money during munitions production leading up to World War I.^[9] The second son was Harrington Mann (1864–1937), a noted portrait painter who was member of the Glasgow Boys movement in the 1880's.^[9] The third son was Arthur Mann (1866-?) who emigrated to Argentina to build a fortune and became the owner of a Estancia. Ludovic was the youngest son.^[5] His oldest sister was Katherine Mann, a poet^[7] and youngest sister was Hilda Harrington Mann (1873–1964).

In 1882, when Mann left school, he began training as a chartered accountant and by 1898 had become an associate member of the Institute of Accountants and Actuaries in Glasgow.^[10] In a 1938 paper written by Mann, "Measures: their prehistoric origin and meaning", he describes how he was "educated at the University of Glasgow as well as on the continent in his teens".^[10]

It is likely that Ludovic Mann began his career as an accountant at his fathers business, John Mann and Sons, an insurance broker that was founded in 1886. His early career would have involved further training in accountancy, training in insurance.^[11] and actuarial science. In 1899, Mann invented consequential loss insurance then called consequential fire loss indemnity. Losses were calculated based on the turnover of the previous year that preceded the damage.^[12] They were essentially contracts of indemnity which would compensate for losses occurring during a period of reduced turnover following the damage.^[12] In 26 January 1900, Mann patented his invention and marketed it through the Canadian Western Assurance Company office in Glasgow.^[10] The product would be later known as Consequential Loss Insurance or Profits Insurance.^[12] In December 1907, he became the manager of the company branch office in Glasgow^[10] where he continued to develop innovative insurance products. By 1910, he was still advertising the product that he was selling from the office of Western Assurance at 144 St. Vincent Street, Glasgow.^[13] By 1925, Mann had become senior partner in Mann, Ballantyne and Co, Insurance Administrators and Brokers. This was an insurance company that had offices in Glasgow and London.^[14][b] By 1950, Mann was chairman of Mann and Ballantyne.^[11][10]

In addition to his insurance endeavours, Mann had another great passion which was as an amateur archeologist, in essence an antiquarian. He was described as the original urban prehistorian.^[16] Indeed, he was so involved in it, active between 1901 and 1945, that it could be called a secondary career, resulting in him becoming Scotlands most significant figure in the development of archeology.^[16] It is unknown when or why Mann became interested in archeology, although it is known that by 1901 he was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland^[10] but it was his membership of the Glasgow Archaeological Society that held his "first and abiding interest".^[17] These dates are further clarified when Mann received a letter from the artist and amateur archeologist William Donnelly on 26 July 1903 congratulating him on "How pleased I was to see you occupying such a prominent position in the report in the “Herald” of your first find".^[18][19] This was in response to Mann's first paper "Note on the finding of an urn, jet necklace, stone axe, and other associated objects, in Wigtownshire" of March 1902, where he discovered the remains of a stone axe-head and urn at a late neolithic site at Mye Plantation in Stoneykirk, Wigtownshire.^[20] The discoverer of the site, a Mr Beckett found 188 small pieces of finely-wrought lignite that was surmised by Mann as being part of a necklace.^[20][21] Mann made further visits to the site, that eventually resulted in another much larger paper "Report on the Excavation of Pre-Historic Pile Structures in Pits in Wigtownshire"^[22] Mann excavated three shallow depressions surrounded by wooden posts, that he considered to be some kind of pit-dwelling.^[23] Other pits that were excavated were thought to be the remains of pit-falls for catching game.^[21]

Mann's next paper in 1904, "Notes (1) on Two Tribula or Threshing-Sledges..."^[24] was a description of a threshing sledge that he had found in Cavalla in Turkey, while on his travels.^[25] This was a flat wooden board set with rows of chipped flint that was used to threshing corn.^[25] Mann conducted an ethnographic analysis of similar devices and their use in various countries. Link to sites where chipped flint was found in the uk was described.^[24] Other devices e.g. sickles are analysed.^[25] In 1905, Mann attended a dig in Langside, Glasgow where he discovered several buriel cinerary urns at a bronze age cemetery.^[26] Mann's 1906 paper, "Notes on – (1) A drinking-cup urn found at Bathgate..."^[27] describes finds in Bathgate and Stevenston that led to Mann visiting each site.^[25] The second chapter describes a site that he found in Tiree that contained 18 cinerary urns.^[c] The last chapter marshalled the current level of research on British prehistoric beads as it was in 1906.^[27] A short paper followed in 1908 where he examined Craggan pottery^[d] from Coll.^[31]

It was six years before Mann wrote another paper, the 1912 examination of perforated stones titled "Perforated Stones of Unknown Use", whose real use hadn't been determined at that point.^[e][33] These perforated stones dated between the middle to late Neolithic periods were used amongst others uses as maceheads.^[34] The 14 page report by Mann examined a number of stones from different finds in various countries but came to no firm conclusion as to their use.^[33] Several examples of perforated stones from the collection of Andrew Henderson Bishop, an amateur archeologist and close friend of Mann were photographed for the paper.^[35] In 1914, he examined a number of Carved stone balls that were found mainly in Scotland with a paper titled "The carved stone balls of Scotland: a new theory as to their use".^[36] He concluded that they were used in a commercial activity as part of a system of weights.^[35]

In December 1902, Mann became involved in the Dumbuck Crannog controversy.^[35][37] The Crannog was discovered in the north shore of Firth of Clyde, close to Dumbarton Castle by William Donnelly on 31 July 1898.^[38] The crannog became notorious for the discovery of a number of forgeries^[39] that had been liberally salted throughout the site.^[40] These were discovered on 12 October 1898 by the physician, academic, archeologist and crannog specialist Dr Robert Munro who visted the site and made a number of excavations. He came to believe that the crannog itself was genuine but the finds, consisting of 30 stone and shale figurines with human characteristics, were elaborate forgeries.^[41] Munro wrote a letter to the Glasgow Herald on 7 January 1899 confirming his belief, which led to a heated debate that played out in the Glasgow newspapers between 1900-1905 and local archeology societies.^[42] Donnelly followed the debate in the newspapers for several months, before entering into private communication with Mann, the first of a number of letters exchanged between them, that began on 26 July 1903.^[43] By December 1905 and the death of William Donnelly, the newspaper debate had completed.^[43]

The controversy re-emerged in 1932, when Mann came to the conclusion that the artifacts were genuine.^[44] He had examined them, taken their measurements and weights and concluded that they followed a prehistoric scale, known as the "metric test" where constructed objects used multiples of the units of 0.619 inch and 0.553 inch in their measurements.^[44] In a letter to the Glasgow Herald on 27 April 1932, he concluded:

the so-called Clyde forgeries of 1898, not only in their dimensions but in their incised design, enshrine the method of combining the twin measures in a single relic … no faker of 1898 could possibly have known of these intricate matters, and thus the relics supposed by some to be forgeries must be genuine.^[45]

The son of William Donnelly, Gerald Donnelly, welcomed the news, as it restored his father reputation. However, Mann's measurement scale was never accepted by mainstream archeologists.^[45]

Mann had a keen interest in raising public awareness of the early science of archaeology and particularly of his work.^[35] This began in 1911, when he organised the prehistoric collection of the Scottish Historical Exhibition held as part of the Scottish Exhibition of National History, Art and Industry that was held in Glasgow^[35] between 2 May to 4 November 1911. Mann provided many of his own pieces for the exhibition and also held a number of lectures under the heading "Glimpses of Scottish Pre-History".^[35] Mann also wrote the introduction to the "Prehistoric Section" of the exhibition catalogue, that he used to critique the underfunding of Scottish archaeology research, stating:

The elucidation of Scottish Prehistory has been seriously handicapped by lack of funds (most Scottish subscriptions for archaeological research going abroad), by an ignorant and dogmatic dilettanteism, and an almost invariable wrecking of prehistoric structures and objects as they come to light. If the Prehistoric Gallery assists in substituting for a merely idle and antiquarian curiosity a strong, intelligent scientific interest, the labours of those who have devoted two years to the preparation of the Gallery, and a much longer time to the collection of its contents, will be amply repaid.^[46]

In 1918, Mann organised his second exhibition, held at Langside Public Library in Langside, on objects and artefacts connected to the Battle of Langside and Mary, Queen of Scots.^[47] Mann populated the exhibition with pieces from several sources including the Hamilton Palace and Pollok House collections along with local pieces and those from private individuals.^[47] Mann wrote a book for the exhibition, the "Mary Queen of Scots at Langside, 1568"^[48] with the profits going to the war relief fund.^[47] As he built experience of forming and hosting exhibitions, he also gained experience of how to display ancient artefacts in the most effective manner.^[47] As the size of his collection increased, he eventually found a permanent home in the Kelvingrove Museum, when the Prehistoric Room was opened in 1928.^[47]

In 1932, Mann created an exhibition of pottery at the "Daily Mail Scottish Ideal Home Exhibition in Olympia, London, covering prehistoric pottery to Crogan Ware^[f][47]

On 23 March 1932, a local Wishaw worker named Gerald Ronlink was digging peat in Greenhead Moss, when he came across a fully-clothed, partly-preserved body buried about two feet down in the bog.^[50] Although the clothes were partially damaged, a unique jacket, cap, and leather shoes could be made out.^[51]

Metrology, the scientific study of measurement, was an already well established antiquarian discipline^[52] by the time Mann became interested in it.

Mann died in his bedroom at his house in 4 Lynedoch Crescent in Glasgow.^[5] In his will, he stipulated that his collection of prehistoric finds should remain in the public domain,^[5] so they were bequeathed upon his death to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum then known as Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum.^[53][54]

• Mann, Ludovic (1915). Archaic sculpturings. Notes on art, philosophy, and religion in Britain, 2000 B.C. to 900 A.D. London: William Hodge. OCLC 557481.
• Mann, Ludovic (1918). Mary Queen of Scots at Langside, 1568 (1st ed.).
• Mann, Ludovic (1930). Craftsmen's measures in prehistoric times. Glasgow: Mann Pub. Co. OCLC 9487547.
• Mann, Ludovic (1937). An appeal to the nation:the "Druids" Temple near Glasgow A magnificent, unique and very Ancient Shrine in imminent danger of destruction. London: William Hodge and Company. OCLC 1036275694.

• The Man The Myth
• Mann archive at Canmore