Nowell Myres

John Nowell Linton Myres CBE (27 December 1902 - 25 September 1989) was a British archaeologist and Bodley's Librarian at the Bodleian Library in Oxford from 1948 until his resignation in 1965; and librarian of Christ Church before his Bodleian appointment.

Life

His father Sir John Myres had been Wykeham Professor of Ancient History at Oxford. Nowell Myres was educated at Winchester College and then New College, Oxford and was president of the Oxford University Archaeological Society in 1923. He became a tutor at Christ Church from 1928.

Works

He was recognised as a leading authority on British history in the time of the Anglo Saxons and earlier. He and R. G. Collingwood wrote the first volume of the Oxford History of England which was widely recognised as a classic. When the series was re-released in the 1980s this volume was split in two, Peter Salway writing what had been Collingwood's part and Myres rewriting his own part at an impressively advanced age.

Selected publications

• 1936: "The English Settlements", in: Collingwood, R. G. & Myres, J. N. L. (1936) Roman Britain and the English Settlements. (The Oxford History of England. [1].) Oxford: Clarendon Press; pp. 325–461 & bibliography
• Myres, J. N. L.; Hawkes, C. F. C.; Bruce-Mitford, Rupert; Hill, J. W. F. & Radford, C. A. Ralegh (1946). "The Archaeology of Lincolnshire and Lincoln: Anglian and Anglo-Danish Lincolnshire" (PDF). The Archaeological Journal. Royal Archaeological Institute. CIII: 85–101.
• 1986: The English Settlements. (The Oxford History of England. 1B.) Oxford: Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-282235-7

References

• Taylor, Arnold. "Myres, (John) Nowell Linton". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39815. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Biography