Gerald Gardner (13 June 1884 – 12 February 1964) was a British archaeologist and anthropologist who founded the Wicca faith in 1954.
Biography[]
Gerald Gardner was born in Blundellsands, Lancashire, England in 1884, and he was raised in an upper-middle-class family. He spent much of his childhood abroad in Madeira, and he later moved to Ceylon and then to Malaya. Gardner developed an interest in native peoples and wrote books about their magical practices, and he became involved in occult groups after returning to England. After moving to London in 1945, he began to develop the Wicca faith, which was publicized in 1954. The faith spread throughout Britain, the United States, and Australia dudring the late 1950s and early 1960s, and he became director of the Museum of Magic and Witchcraft on the Isle of Man, running it until his death in 1964.