Nationality English Children one son, two daughters | Occupation Archaeologist | |
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Spouse(s) Kathleen Dent (m.1941–1972), Marilyn Luscombe (m.1975–1984), Margaret Adams (m.1988–1994) Parent(s) C. E. Bruce-Mitford and Beatrice Allison Died 1994, Oxford, United Kingdom Books Sutton Hoo ship-burial |
Rupert Leo Scott Bruce-Mitford (surname sometimes: "Mitford") (1914 in Streatham (London), UK – 1994 in Oxford) was a British archaeologist best known for his multi-volume publication on the Sutton Hoo ship burial.
Contents
Throughout his professional career, Rupert was also a noted academic, originally attending Hertford College at Oxford University as Baring Scholar and then continuing his academic work throughout his life as Slade Professor of Fine Art, Cambridge University 1978-79; Visiting Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford 1978-79; Professorial Fellow, Emmanuel College, Cambridge 1978-79
Bruce-Mitford worked for the British Museum, London, in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities from 1938, and, following the bequest of the Sutton Hoo Treasure to the nation in 1942, he was charged with leading the project to study and publish the finds. This he did through four decades at the British Museum. He also became President of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Apart from military service in World War II he worked at the British Museum continuously until 1977, including two keeperships, and finally as a research keeper.
Apart from his work with the British Museum and as an academic, Bruce-Mitford also held the titles Secretary, Society of Antiquaries 1950-54, Vice-President 1972-76 then President, Society for Medieval Archaeology 1957-59; FBA 1976;
He was also responsible for translating Danish archaeologist P.V. Glob's book The Bog People (1965) into English.
In the 1950s, Bruce-Mitford was invited to join the panel (alongside Professor Glyn Daniel and Sir Mortimer Wheeler) of the celebrated television show Animal, Vegetable or Mineral. The first programme of its kind to introduce archaeology to a wide public audience, it was produced by a youthful David Attenborough who, in 1966, when Controller of BBC2, commissioned The Million Pound Grave, and a sequel, about the excavations at Sutton Hoo.
Personal life
He was married three times and had three children by his first wife, Kathleen Dent.