W. F. Grimes

{{Short description|Welsh archeologist (1905–1988)}} {{Use British English|date=February 2023}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox scientist | name = W. F. Grimes | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CBE|size=100%}} | image = File:W._F._Grimes.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1905|10|31}} | birth_place = [[Pembroke, Pembrokeshire|Pembroke]], [[Wales]] | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1988|12|25|1905|10|31}} | death_place = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | residence = | citizenship = | fields = | workplaces = | education = [[Bedford Modern School]] | alma_mater = [[University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire]] | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature =  | signature_alt = | website = | footnotes = | spouse = }}

'''William Francis Grimes''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE}} (known as [[Peter Grimes|Peter]]; 31 October 1905 – 25 December 1988) was a Welsh [[archaeologist]]. He devoted his career to the archaeology of London and the [[Prehistoric Wales|prehistory of Wales]]. He was appointed a [[CBE]] in 1955.<ref>{{Cite web|url-access=subscription|url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540891.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-164833|title=Grimes, Prof. William Francis, (31 Oct. 1905–25 Dec. 1988), Director of the Institute of Archæology, and Professor of Archæology, University of London, 1956–73|website=WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO|year=2007|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U164833|isbn=978-0-19-954089-1}}</ref>

==Early life== Grimes was born in [[Pembroke, Pembrokeshire|Pembroke]] in Wales. His father was a draughtsman with the Pembroke docks board. He was educated at Pembroke county school and then at [[Bedford Modern School]]<ref>{{Cite book|title=Bedford Modern School of the black & red|first=Andrew|last=Underwood|date=24 June 1981|publisher=Bedford Modern School|oclc=16558393 }}</ref> after his father moved to [[Bedford]] to work as a draughtsman on airships.

Grimes returned to Wales in 1923 to study [[Latin]] at the [[University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire]] in [[Cardiff]], where his lecturers included [[Mortimer Wheeler]] and [[Cyril Fox]]. Wheeler was also Keeper and then from 1923 Director of the [[National Museum of Wales]]. Grimes graduated with first-class honours in 1926.

==Career== Wheeler moved to become Director of the [[London Museum (1912–1976)|London Museum]] in 1926, and Cyril Fox replaced him as Director of the National Museum of Wales. Grimes became an assistant keeper of archaeology at the National Museum of Wales, working with the newly appointed keeper of archaeology, [[Victor Erle Nash-Williams]]. He received an MA from the University of Wales in 1930 for a dissertation on the [[Roman pottery]] from the [[Legio XX Valeria Victrix|20th Legion]]'s works at [[Holt, Wales|Holt]] (then in [[Denbighshire]]). He became interested in the prehistory of Wales, and was involved in excavations at [[Pyle]], Ludchurch, Corston Beacon and [[Llanboidy]].

Grimes became a Fellow of the [[Society of Antiquaries of London]] in 1934. He published a book on the prehistory of Wales in 1939, ''Guide to the Collection Illustrating the Prehistory of Wales'', which won the Cambrian Archaeological Association's [[G. T. Clark]] prize in 1949. The book was republished as ''The Prehistory of Wales'' in 1951, and a second edition followed in 1959. He met [[Audrey Williams (archaeologist)|Audrey Williams]] in 1935, while preparing an exhibition in Swansea for the centenary of the [[Royal Institution of South Wales]]. They went on to work together at many excavations in Wales and elsewhere, and were later married.

Grimes moved to Southampton in 1938 to become an assistant archaeology officer with the [[Ordnance Survey]], and was quickly involved in the excavation of the newly discovered ship burial at [[Sutton Hoo]] the following year. He was seconded to the [[Ministry of Works (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Works]] in the Second World War, and worked with Audrey Williams on quick surveys and excavations before the construction of new airfields and other military structures. His discoveries included an Iron Age religious site at [[Heathrow]].

In 1945, he succeeded Mortimer Wheeler as director of the London Museum, then based in [[Lancaster House]]. He was involved in the programme to excavate [[the Blitz|Blitz]] sites in London before they were redeveloped. For this work, he received the freedom of the [[City of London]] in 1952. A highlight was the excavation of the [[London Mithraeum]] with Audrey Williams, which was discovered at a building site at [[Walbrook]] in 1954. The site was featured in the ''[[Illustrated London News]]'' illustrated with drawings by [[Alan Sorrell]].

The unexpected discovery of a bust of [[Mithras]] on the last scheduled day of the excavation generated considerable press and public interest, debates in Parliament and discussion in the Cabinet. The excavation was extended, allowing further discoveries to be made, but delaying the construction. Although Bucklersbury House was built over the site, Grimes succeeded in salvaging many of its finds and features including marble statuary attesting to the wealth of its congregation. The temple was reconstructed nearby in the 1960s, but the work was not supervised by archaeologists and Grimes was dismissive of the result.

Grimes was appointed [[CBE]] in 1955. He continued his excavations in London after he succeeded [[V. Gordon Childe]] as director of the [[UCL Institute of Archaeology|Institute of Archaeology]] and professor of archaeology at the University of London in 1956 (Wheeler had founded the Institute in 1937, and Childe became director after Wheeler resigned in 1946). While Grimes was its director, the Institute moved from [[St. John's Lodge (London)|St John's Lodge]] in [[Regent's Park]] to new premises at [[Gordon Square]].

Grimes remained interested in the archaeology of Wales. He received an honorary DLitt from the University of Wales in 1961, and was president of the [[Cambrian Archaeological Association]] in 1963–64. He served on many commissions and committees with a variety of official bodies and archaeological societies and organisations, including the [[Society of Antiquaries of London|Society of Antiquaries]], the [[Royal Archaeological Institute]], and the [[Council for British Archaeology]]. He was a member of the [[Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales]] for 30 years from 1948, also serving a period as chairman, and joined the [[Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England]] in 1964. He retired from both commissions in 1978. Between 1975 and 1988 he served as the first chairman of the Dyfed Archaeological Trust.

==Private life== Grimes married a childhood friend Barbara Lilian Morgan in 1928. They had two children. They were divorced in 1959, and he became the third husband of [[Audrey Williams (archaeologist)|Audrey Williams]]. She bestowed on him the nickname [[Peter Grimes|Peter]]. They retired to her home in [[Brynmill]] in Swansea in 1973. After Audrey died in 1978, he was remarried to Mrs Molly Waverley Sholto Douglas in 1980.

He suffered from [[Parkinson's disease]] in later life, and died at home in Swansea. He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at [[Pwlldu Bay]] on the [[Gower Peninsula]], where the ashes of his second wife Audrey had also been scattered.

==Published works== *''The Megalithic Monuments of Wales'', Cardiff: [[National Museum of Wales]], 1936. *''The Prehistory of Wales'', Cardiff: National Museum of Wales, 1951. * {{cite journal | last = Grimes | first = W. F. | date = January 1955 | title = The Council for British Archaeology: The First Decade | journal = The Archaeological News Letter | publisher = Linden Publicity | volume = 5 | issue = 8 | pages = 139–145 }} *"Excavations in the City of London", in [[Rupert Bruce-Mitford|Bruce-Mitford, R. L. S.]] (ed.) ''Recent Archaeological Excavations in Britain'', London: [[Routledge & Kegan Paul]], 1956. *''The Excavation of Roman and Mediaeval London'', London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1968.

==See also== *[[Nautical Archaeology Society]]

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

==References== * David Gill, 'Grimes, William Francis (1905–1988)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/67870 accessed 3 May 2013] * [http://www.archaeologybulletin.org/article/download/bha.10102/292 William F Grimes: The Making of a Prehistorian] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403084733/http://www.archaeologybulletin.org/article/download/bha.10102/292 |date=3 April 2015 }}, David WJ Gill, Bulletin of the History of Archaeology, 10:1 (May 2000)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grimes, W. F.}} [[Category:Welsh archaeologists]] [[Category:People from Pembroke, Pembrokeshire]] [[Category:People educated at Bedford Modern School]] [[Category:1905 births]] [[Category:1988 deaths]] [[Category:Academics of the UCL Institute of Archaeology]] [[Category:Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London]] [[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]] [[Category:People of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England]] [[Category:Presidents of the Royal Archaeological Institute]] [[Category:Sutton Hoo]]