Philip Stapleton, Jesuit priest, teacher and archaeologist,
was the son of Bryan John Stapleton and his wife Mary Helen Alice Dolman. From
1890 to 1898 he studied at the Stonyhurst Jesuit seminary in Lancashire. After
teaching for some time at Wimbledon College, London, he continued his training
at Jesuit seminaries in Wales and Spain before being ordained in September
1908. During 1910 to 1914 he taught at Mount St Mary's College in Derbyshire.
He developed an interest in archaeology and local history while a student at
Stonyhurst and during his stay in Wales wrote a paper on 'Exploration of
Moel-y-Gaer, Bodfari' in the journal Archaeologia
Cambrensis (1909).
In 1914 Stapleton was sent to South Africa to teach at St Aidan's
College, Grahamstown, where he served as rector of the college from 1922 to February
1929. By that time he was in poor health and was appointed as assistant master
and administrator of St George's College, Salisbury (now Harare, Zimbabwe). He had
many friends and correspondents, was a good administrator and an excellent
teacher who encouraged his pupils to think for themselves and not merely
memorise their study material. He died at Harrismith during a visit to South
Africa.
In Grahamstown Stapleton conducted archaeological
investigations in his spare time, becoming an expert in the area and involving
some of his pupils. His first publication was 'Note of a find of strandlooper
pottery at Dunbrody, on the Sunday's River' (South African Journal of Science, 1919, Vol. 16, pp. 229-232). He
collaborated with John Hewitt* of the Albany Museum on excavations between 1914
and 1920, and again at Howieson's Poort in 1927. With Hewitt he published an
important paper, 'On some remarkable stone implements in the Albany Museum' (South African Journal of Natural History,
1925, Vol. 5, pp. 23-38) in which they discussed the antiquity and nomenclature
of South African stone artefacts and stressed the importance of distribution in
the study of prehistory. The results of their work at Howieson's Poort were
reported in 'Stone implements from a rock-shelter at Howieson's Poort, near
Grahamstown' (South African Journal of
Science, 1927, Vol. 24, pp. 574-587 and 1928, Vol. 25, pp. 399-409). Their
finds, and similar artefacts found at other sites, became known as the Howieson's
Poort cultural phase, intermediate between the Middle and Later Stone Ages. They
collaborated again in 1930, excavating five caves in the Cala district of the
Transkei.
In Zimbabwe, in collaboration with Father T.I. Gardner*,
Stapleton explored Gwelo Kopje (now Gweru) and a site at the Gokomere Mission
near Fort Victoria (now Masvingo). He published several papers on his finds: 'Gwelo
Kopje, S. Rhodesia' (as co-author with T.I. Gardner; Proceedings of the Rhodesia Scientific Association, 1934, Vol. 33,
pp. 4-14), 'Notes on certain ground (or polished) artefacts from Rhodesia' (Queen Victoria Memorial Library, Salisbury,
Annual Report, 1935/6, pp. 11-16), 'Palaeoliths from Salisbury commonage,
Southern Rhodesia' (Proceedings and
Transactions of the Rhodesia Scientific Association, 1936, Vol. 34(2), pp.
6-9), 'Report on the stone material from Nyazongo Cave' (Occasional Papers of the Queen Victoria Memorial Library, 1938,
Vol. 1, pp;. 4-14) and 'Pottery from the Salisbury District, Southern Rhodesia'
(Transactions of the Royal Society of
South Africa, 1938, Vol. 26, pp. 319-321). He was an enthusiastic and
active member of the Rhodesia Scientific Association.
