He began periods as President of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland in 1899 and 1917.

"A man of handsome and even striking appearance",[2] he was a major figure in British museum curation in his day, though he published relatively little.

[4] In his time the department of "British and Medieval Antiquities and Ethnography" still included areas that were later split off, such as ethnography and "oriental" collections beyond Egypt and the Near East, as well as others not obviously covered by its title, including Western ceramics and glass of all dates, and post-medieval European objects.

Like Franks, he was popular with major collectors, helping to steer several significant donations to the museum, from J. Pierpont Morgan among others.

[7] His health deteriorated after his retirement, and he spent the winters on the Riviera, dying in Rapallo, Italy on 11 February 1929.