Later in 1909, Evelyn-White took a post as a specialist in Greco-Roman antiquities on the annual expedition of the New York Metropolitan Museum to Egypt.[2]: 331 He worked each year on the expedition until the First World War, when he joined the British Army. Initially, he signed up as an enlisted soldier in the 16th (Service) Battalion, Middlesex Regiment (Public Schools), but was invalidated out due to ill-health. He subsequently obtained an officer's commission and saw further service in Egypt and Palestine before again being invalided out in 1917.[2]: 331 He worked on the excavations in Egypt until 1921, and he returned to England in 1922 to work at as a lecturer at the University of Leeds.
Evelyn-White made many translations of ancient Greek works, his most notable being those of Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns. He excavated at the Roman military site of Caerleon in 1909, at the Roman fort of Castell Collen in Radnorshire in 1913, and at Cawthorne Camp in 1924.[2]: 331
Evelyn-White died by suicide in 1924, at the age of forty.[1][2] He shot himself in a taxi after the preceding suicide of a romantic interest.[3]
My son, take thou never counsel with the wicked,
Neither put thou thy trust in him when thou wouldest bring any worthy thing to pass:
But find thee out an upright man:
Yea, even with long toil and far wandering shalt thou seek him.
Commit not thy way utterly unto any man, no, not unto thy friends,
For there be few that are of an honest heart.
—Theognis, 1.69–71, translated by Evelyn-White in 1909[4]
Selected publications
Evelyn-White, Hugh G. (1909). "Translation". The Classical Review. 23 (5): 174. JSTOR694439.
Evelyn-White, Hugh G. (1910). "The Myth of the Nostoi". The Classical Review. 24 (7): 201–205. JSTOR695254.
Evelyn-White, Hugh G. (1911). "The Introduction to the Oxyrynchus Sayings". The Journal of Theological Studies. 13 (49): 74–76. JSTOR23946823.
Evelyn-White, Hugh G. (1913). "Hesiodeia: I". The Classical Quarterly. 7 (4): 217–220. JSTOR635562.
Evelyn-White, Hugh G. (1915). "Hesiodeia: II". The Classical Quarterly. 9 (2): 72–76. JSTOR635725.
Evelyn-White, Hugh G. (1916). "Hesiodeia: III". The Classical Quarterly. 10 (2): 65–69. JSTOR635959.
Crum, W. E., & Evelyn-White, H. G. (1926). The monastery of Epiphanius at Thebes/Pt. 2 Coptic ostraca and papyri/ed. with translations and commentaries by WE Crum. The monastery of Epiphanius at Thebes.
Evelyn White, H. G. (1920). The Egyptian Expedition 1916-1919: IV. The Monasteries of the Wadi Natrun. Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 34–39.
