William Collings Lukis

Who was William Collings Lukis?

Rev. William Collings Lukis MA. FSA was a British antiquarian, archeologist and polymath.

William Collings Lukis was the third son of Frederick Corbin Lukis, of the Colonel of Guernsey Militia. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was married to Lucy Adelaide daughter of Admiral Sir Thomas Fellowes.

Lukis is best remembered in England for his work on the megaliths of Great Britain and France; with his university friend Sir Henry Dryden he surveyed the megalithic monuments of Brittany. He was ordained in Salisbury in 1845, and after holding several livings in Wiltshire he moved to Wath in Yorkshire, where he carried out a number of excavations. He published a treatise on ancient church plate in 1845 and was a regular contributor to the journals of the British Archaeological Association and other learned societies. His collection of artefacts was bought by the British Museum after his death.

His sister Louisa was married to William Thomas Collings, Seigneur of Sark, and is the ancestor of the island's present ruler, Michael Beaumont.