| Paul Ashbee | |
| Birth Date: | 1918 6, df=y |
| Birth Place: | Bearsted, near Maidstone, Kent |
| Citizenship: | British |
| Fields: | Archaeology |
| Alma Mater: | University of London |
| Known For: | Leading authority on Neolithic and Bronze Age barrows |
Paul Ashbee (23 June 1918 – 19 August 2009) was a leading British archaeologist, noted for his many excavations of barrows, or burial mounds, and for co-directing the Sutton Hoo digs (with Rupert Bruce-Mitford) from 1964 to 1972. He was also president of the Just William Society. He died of cancer on 19 August 2009, aged 91.[1]
The only child of cabinet maker Lewis Ashbee and Hannah Mary Elisabeth, daughter of house decorator William Edward Birch Brett, of Thanet, Kent,[2] Paul Ashbee was born in Bearsted, near Maidstone, Kent. He made national headlines when he uncovered the remains of a Roman villa on a farm at Thurnham when still a teenager.[1] He joined the Royal West Kent Regiment for the duration of the war, followed by the Control Commission for Germany. Although without any qualifications he studied for a diploma in European prehistoric archaeology at the University of London in 1952, followed by a diploma in education at Bristol University and a MA at Leicester University. He became an assistant history master at Britain's first comprehensive school, Forest Hill School, Forest Hill, London where he stayed until 1966.[1] He married Richmal Disher in 1952; the niece and literary executor of Richmal Crompton,[3] [4] [5] she was a history student and they met at a dig at Verulamium, St Albans in 1949. She died in 2005,[1] after which Ashbee became president of the Just William Society.[4]
Ashbee went into archaeology (during school holidays) after service in the army through the Second World War. He excavated widely across southern Britain and is best known as a leading authority on Neolithic and Bronze Age barrows.[6] From 1976 to 1980 he was the President of the Cornwall Archaeology Society,[7] and was also a commissioner of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England for 10 years.[1]
Ward . Anthony . Lawson . Terence . Paul Ashbee, M.A., D.Litt., F.S.A. . Archaeologia Cantiana . 130 . 2010 . 435 - 438 .