John Beddoe (born 1826 in Bewdley, Worcestershire - died 19 July 1911) was one of the most prominent English ethnologists in Victorian Britain. Beddoe lived in Bristol.

He believed that eye colour and hair colour were valuable evidence in the origins of the British people. He wrote The Races of Britain: A Contribution to the Anthropology of Western Europe, (1862) which was re-published in 1862, 1885, 1905 and 1971. Beddoe wrote in his work that all geniuses tended to be "orthognathous" (that is, have receding jaws) while the Irish and the Welsh were "prognathous" (have large jaws). Beddoe also maintained that Celts were similar to Cromagnon man, and Cromagnon man was similar to the "Africanoid" race. Celts in Beddoe's "Index of Negrescence" are very different than Anglo-Saxons.

He was a founder of the Ethnological Society. Beddoe was president of the Anthropological Institute from 1889 to 1891 and fellow of the Royal Society.

References

• The Races of Britain: A Contribution to the Anthropology of Western Europe, Bristol and London, John Beddoe, J. W. Arrowsmith, Bristol & Trübnermm, London, 1885; republished by Hutchinson, London, 1971, ISBN: 0091013704.