| AdminHistory | Courtenay Arthur Ralegh Radford (1900-1998) was Chairman of the aforementioned Committee. He was the only son of Arthur Lock Radford, antiquary and medieval scholar, and his wife, Ada Minnie, ne Bruton. He was educated at St George's School, Harpenden, and Exeter College, Oxford, where he graduated with a second-class degree in modern history in 1921.
Radford helped to excavate Whitby Abbey in the early 1920s and, after travels in central Europe and the Balkans, held scholarships at the British Schools at both Athens and Rome. After work at Richborough (Kent), he became the inspector of ancient monuments for Wales and Monmouthshire in 1929. In 1936 Radford was appointed Director of the British School at Rome, returning to Britain at the onset of World War Two. After resuming his archaeological career, from 1946 to 1948 Radford acted as the secretary of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales and Monmouthshire (which he had served as member from 1935 to 1946). He then embarked on excavations at Glastonbury (Somerset), Whithorn (Wigtownshire), and Birsay (Orkney), all major early medieval sites.
He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1928, a fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1930, and a fellow of the British Academy in 1956. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England) from 1953 to 1976 and served as president of the Prehistoric Society (1954-1958), the Royal Archaeological Institute (1960-1963), and the Society for Medieval Archaeology (1969-1971). The Society of Antiquaries gave him its highest award, its gold medal, in 1972. |