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Peter Megaw

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Peter Megaw
CBE
An elderly white man in a chequered jacket, tie and pullover. He is smiling in a garden.
Born
Arthur Hubert Stanley Megaw

(1910-07-20)20 July 1910
Portobello, Dublin, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Died28 May 2006(2006-05-28) (aged 95)
Hampstead, London, England
NationalityBritish
TitleDirector of the British School at Athens (1962–1968)
Spouse
Elektra Elena Mangoletsi
​
​
(m. 1937; died 1993)​
RelativesEric Megaw, Basil Megaw (brothers)
Academic background
EducationCampbell College
Alma materPeterhouse, Cambridge
Academic work
InstitutionsDepartment of Antiquities, Cyprus
Dumbarton Oaks
Byzantine Institute of America
British School at Athens

Arthur Hubert Stanley "Peter" Megaw, CBE (20 July 1910 – 28 June 2006) was an architectural historian and archaeologist. He specialised in Byzantine churches. He served as Director of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, between 1935 and 1960 and as Director of the British School at Athens from 1962 to 1968.

Early life

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Megaw was born on 20 July 1910 at Portobello House nursing home in Portobello, Dublin, Ireland. He was the second of four sons of Arthur Stanley Megaw, a solicitor, and his wife, Helen Isabel Bertha Megaw (née Smith). Between 1924 and 1928, he was educated at Campbell College, Belfast, a boys' boarding school. He went on to read architecture at Peterhouse, Cambridge, at the same time as the actor James Mason, graduating in 1931.[1][2] Two of his brothers, Basil Megaw and Eric Megaw, also had notable careers in their own fields.[3][4]

Career

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Megaw never held an academic post at a university.[3] He spent 75 years "working on the study and preservation of the monuments of the Christian East".[5]

He first joined the British School at Athens as Walston Student in 1931,[5] to study Byzantine architecture.[2]

He served as the first[6] Director of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus between 1935 and 1960.[5] In Cyprus he excavated the Kourion episcopal basilica and the Medieval fortress at Saranta Kolones.

With the independence of Cyprus from British Rule in 1960, he spent two short, successive posts at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington DC and at the Byzantine Institute of America in Istanbul, Turkey.[2] He served as Director of the British School at Athens from 1962 to 1968.[5] Following his early retirement from the directorship, he joined the Harvard Centre for Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks as a visiting scholar. He spent the remaining years of the 1960s and the 1970s splitting his time between Cyprus and the United States.[3]

Megaw's work can be seen in the photographic collection held at the Conway Library, Courtauld Institute of Art.[7]

Later life

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Megaw died of cancer on 28 June 2006 at his London home in Hampstead. He was cremated on 20 July 2006 at Golders Green Crematorium, London.[2]

Personal life

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Megaw was known to his friends and colleagues as Peter.[8]

In Cyprus he also acted as a Public Information Officer and an Intelligence Officer on behalf of the island's British colonial government.[9]

In 1937, he married Elektra Elena Mangoletsi. She was an artist who was born in 1905. She died in 1993. They did not have any children.[2]

Honours

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In June 1949, he was appointed Serving Brother of the Venerable Order of Saint John (SBStJ).[10] In the 1951 King's Birthday Honours, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).[11] He was promoted to Commander of the Venerable Order of Saint John (CStJ) in September 1967.[12]

In 1995, the Society of Antiquaries of London awarded him the Frend medal. This is an award for studies related to the archaeology, history and topography of the early Christian Church.[2] The book Mosaic: festschrift for A.H.S. Megaw was published in 2001 in his honour.[13]

Publications

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References

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  1. ^ "University News", The Times, 22 June 1931, p. 19.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Catling, Hector (January 2010). "Megaw, Arthur Hubert Stanley". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/97380. Retrieved 2 May 2024. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)(subscription required)
  3. ^ a b c "Peter Megaw". The Times. 4 August 2006. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  4. ^ "(no title)". Isle of Man Times. 12 January 1952. p. 8 – via iMuseum, Manx National Heritage. {{cite news}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  5. ^ a b c d Catling, Hector (2007). "A. H. S. Megaw (1910–2006): A Memoir". The Annual of the British School at Athens. 102: 1–10. doi:10.1017/S0068245400021420. JSTOR 30245245. S2CID 163271470.
  6. ^ "Hector Catling". The Telegraph. 6 March 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  7. ^ "Who made the Conway Library?". Digital Media. 30 June 2020. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
  8. ^ "Robin Sinclair Cormack". Oral History Project. Dumbarton Oaks – Research Library and Collection. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  9. ^ "War Service of Students of the School, 1939-1945". The Annual of the British School at Athens. 42: ix–xv. 1947. ISSN 0068-2454. JSTOR 30096718.
  10. ^ "No. 38650". The London Gazette. 24 June 1949. p. 3132.
  11. ^ "No. 39243". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 June 1951. p. 3083.
  12. ^ "No. 44404". The London Gazette. 8 September 1967. p. 9801.
  13. ^ Judith Herrin; Margaret Mullett; Catherine Otten-Froux, eds. (2001). Mosaic: festschrift for A.H.S. Megaw. British School at Athens. ISBN 0904887405.
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