Greville John Chester (1830–1892), an Oxford alumnus and ordained clergyman, devoted the latter half of his life to travel and exploration in Egypt and the Levant, where he collected archaeological artefacts for the British Museum and other institutions. His devotion to Oxford University led him not only to become a prodigious donor to the Ashmolean Museum, but to intervene actively in the debate on the future of the museum and of the teaching of archaeology within in the University in a period of change.