George Finley

George Finley (1799-1875) was a British historian of Scottish ethnicity. He was born in Favershame of Kent and studied law in Glasgow. On 1821 he went to Gottingen to continue his studies, however his profound interest in the Greek war of independence won him over and so he deferred his studies on 1823 to visit Greece. On November of the same year he arrived in the island of Cephalonia were he was welcomed by Lord Byron himself. He later disembarked at Pyrgos where he dedicated 14 months to study the Greek language, the Greek history and antiquity.

Finley despite forming a bad initial impression to the existing officers did not lose his initial excitement in their cause. Unfortunately he contracted fever and had to spend the winter of 1824 and the spring of 1825 in Rome Napoli and then Sicily. He later returned to Scotland and finally received his degree in law. He then returned to Greece and remained there almost permanently until he died. He took part in the unsuccessful attempts of Cochran and Richard Church to relieve Athens on 1827. When Greece independence was secured he bought land in the area of Attica but all his efforts of importing better agricultural equipment failed. He then dedicated himself in righting historical works. One of his first publishing was “The Hellenic Kingdom and the Greek Nation” on 1836 and his essay “Banking principles applicable in Greece” the same year.His first series of essays of his great historical work became known on 1844 with “Greece under Romans” and on 1854 “The History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires” which quickly was accompanied by the “History of Greece under the Ottoman and Venetian Domination” on 1856 and the “History of the Greek Revolution”. The first to translate his works in Greek was the famous Greek writer Alexandros Papadiamantis.

When his health deteriorated he spent his final years updating and revising his earlier works. He received on 1854 an honorary doctorate LL.D from the University of Glasgow. From 1862 until 1870 he was a correspondent of the Times Newspaper and his influence on Greek press had significant effect in the political scenery. He died in Athens on 1875. He is considered a great philhellene and a great historian for bringing to the public a field of research ignored by English writers till that day.