Pretty

Edith May Pretty (1883 - 1942) was an English landowner on whose land the Sutton Hoo ship burial was discovered after she hired Basil Brown, a local excavator and amateur archeologist, to find out if anything lay beneath the mounds on her property. Edith had become acquainted with archaeological digs early in her life through her travels. In addition, her friend Florence Sayce's Egyptologist uncle, Archibald Sayce; and her father excavated a Cistercian abbey adjoining their home at Vale Royal.

In 1937, Edith discussed the possibility of an excavation and self-taught Suffolk archaeologist Basil Brown was subsequently invited to excavate the mounds. He soon unearthed the remains of a large burial site, containing what was later identified as a 7th-century Saxon ship, which may have been the last resting-place of King Rædwald of East Anglia. A curator of the British Museum described the discovery as "one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time".

In September 1939, a treasure trove inquest determined that the grave goods unearthed from the ship were Pretty's property to do with as she chose. She subsequently donated the trove to the British Museum.