Week 11, 14th-18th Dec

This week I have been cataloguing letters from John to his father (Herbert) which were sent during John and Hilda’s first excavation season in Egypt (Nov 1928-Mar 1929), John’s first season as Curator at Knossos (Mar-Jul 1930), during a cruise around some of the Greek islands (Apr 1929), and from Athens, Sicily and Cambridge.

Letters sent to Herbert Pendlebury from Sicily, Athens and Egypt. Copyright: The British School at Athens

John’s future career looms large as a subject in the letters I have been cataloguing this week.  There is discussion of a job offer from the British Museum, Herbert’s encouragement for John to accept a lectureship at Cambridge University (which John enthusiastically declined), John becoming the first recipient of the Macmillan studentship at the BSA, and accepted offers of the Curatorship at Knossos and Directorship of the Egyptian Exploration Society excavation at Amarna.

The archive shows that John was extremely pleased to receive the unexpected offer of the Directorship of the Amarna excavation. He writes…

“Amarna means a real chance of making a name – and what is more a definite position and hold on both sides. It is a great and famous site and it is the biggest compliment I have ever been payed to be asked to succeed such celebrities as Petrie, Borchardt, Peet, Woolley, Griffith and Frankfort”.

The Egyptian Exploration Society Lucy Gura Archive has digitised film footage of life at the Amarna excavation, which features John Pendlebury and is available to watch online.

Other subjects covered in the letters include a dispute with Spyridon Marinatos (Director of the Candia Museum [Heraklion Archaeological Museum]), disagreement with conclusions in John’s article on ‘Egypt and the Aegean in the Late Bronze Age’, publication of ‘Aegyptiaca’, and a cruise around the Greek Islands with Charles and Isabel Seltman.

A postcard from Chios sent to Herbert Pendlebury from John Pendlebury, during a cruise around Greek islands (Apr 1929). Copyright: The British School at Athens

This week I have been getting to grips with the Getty Geographical Thesaurus, a controlled vocabulary tool, to decide which version of place names to use. This tool is particularly important for cataloguing the material about Greece and Egypt, as there are quite a few variants of place names [partly due to differences in transliteration from different alphabets] . Using controlled vocabulary terms will help researchers look for material relating to places and ensure consistency in my cataloguing.

I will be taking a break over Christmas, but when I come back at the beginning of January I will continue cataloguing John’s letters to his father.

Week 10, 7th-11th Dec

File of letters from John Pendlebury to his father, from Greece. September – October 1928. Copyright: The British School at Athens

This week I have finished cataloguing John’s letters written to his father during his studentship at the BSA (British School at Athens) from November 1927 to May 1928. I have also completed the descriptions for letters that John sent to Herbert (his father) from London and Cambridge during the summer of 1928; and from Athens, the Peloponnese and Thessaloniki in September and October 1928.

The letters sent during John’s studentship contain information relating to an item in the museum collection at the BSA. The correspondence reveals that during a trip to Aegina John and Hilda “picked up” parts of a Minyan bowl near what John described as the temple of Aphrodite (probably the temple of Apollo). Later letters reveal that John gave the fragments of the bowl to the BSA’s collection and that it had been found in a “dump of sherds” left by a German archaeological team during their excavations at the temple. With the help of the BSA Archivist I looked for this item in the museum catalogue, and there it was – or what seems highly likely to be the same bowl.

The information from the John Pendlebury Family papers can be added to the museum catalogue to give the item more context. Here we have a clear example of how cataloguing a specific collection can enrich the overall knowledge of collections, particularly where there are these explicit links.

The letters sent from London and Cambridge in the summer of 1928 include Johns announcement of his engagement to Hilda. John quotes, what can be assumed was Herbert’s letter announcing his engagement to Mabel Dickinson, writing…

‘Your own style is best. “You will probably be surprised to hear that I am engaged” – to Hilda White who got back today from Greece.’

John and Hilda Pendlebury on their wedding day (15 Sep 1928), from the Pendlebury Family Papers. Copyright: British School at Athens

John and Hilda were engaged in June and married in September. They then returned to Greece for a week-long honeymoon in the Peloponnese and some work in Thessaloniki (sorting sherds from an excavation in Chalkidiki which John had been part of earlier that year).

The latest section of letters that I have catalogued describe the honeymoon, the work in Thessaloniki and arrangements for their journey to Egypt – John and Hilda’s next stop.

A map of the route of John and Hilda’s travels for their honeymoon in the Peloponnese, on the back of a letter to Herbert Pendlebury. Copyright: The British School at Athens

Next week I will be continuing to catalogue John’s letters to his father, beginning with his first dig season in Egypt.

Week 9, 30th Nov-4th Dec

A file of letters sent to Lilian and Herbert Pendlebury from John Pendlebury whilst he was at Winchester College. Copyright: The British School at Athens

Whilst completing the catalogue descriptions of John’s letters to his parents from Winchester College I discovered more about the terminology that I was puzzling over last week. This terminology is called ‘notions’. There have been official books of the terms published, and John refers to spending time learning them in his letters. The number of notions in use has declined over time, but there is still a current booklet which pupils of the College can purchase and a glossary of some of the terms on Winchester College’s website.

I also discovered that Winchester College Football is a distinct game from football, and that both are played at the College (and were played by John). Depending on the context and terminology used it is usually possible to determine which sport John was discussing in his letters. He was a very sporting pupil and as well as playing  both types of football he took part in activities including competitive rifle shooting, cricket, fives, athletics (hurdles and high-jump) and the Steeplechase race.

John Pendlebury, High Jump in 1926. Copyright: The British School at Athens

John Pendlebury, Hurdles, 1925. Copyright: The British School at Athens

After finishing the first draft of the descriptions of John’s letters to his parents from Winchester, I checked through the descriptions again making additions and adjustments. I found I was able to make more sense of some of the letters once I had learnt more about the Winchester College environment and context that John was writing in.

I have now moved on to cataloguing John’s letters to his father which were written whilst he was based here, at the British School at Athens, from 1927-28. John arrived in November 1927 with a studentship and a task to trace all archaeological finds of Egyptian origin in Greece up to 664 BC. His letters to his father reveal first impressions of the British School and his fellow residents, including his future wife Hilda White.

…Miss White who alone of the lot strikes one as being at all human, she reminds me of Vera rather. The rest are definitely sub-human.” (20 Nov 1927)

“I only wish everyone wouldn’t be so obviously learned to the eyebrows. It makes me feel like such an impostor being here at all.” (20 Nov 1927)

The British School residents wasted no time in organising expeditions to other parts of Greece. The letters I have been cataloguing are full of descriptions of trips to Thessaly, the Argolid and Crete – which has prompted regular searches on Google maps!

A map of John’s trip around Eastern Crete with Hilda White, Vivien Whitfield and Margaret Rodger (from the British School at Athens) in 1928. From a letter to Herbert Pendlebury. Copyright: The British School at Athens

John’s letters from Greece are written solely to his father. His mother, Lilian Pendlebury, had died of heart failure in September 1921 when she was only 50 and John was just 16. The archive does not tell us much of John’s reaction to this tragedy as there is a gap in the surviving correspondence between March 1921 and November 1927.

The only material within the John Pendlebury Family Papers dating from the mid-1920s are a few letters sent to Herbert about John from Winchester College and Pembroke College, a travel log of John’s travels in Greece in 1923, some school notebooks containing essays, and a hand-drawn plan of Tanagra (from John’s travels in 1923). I am not yet certain whether the letters from the schools to Herbert contain much about John’s reaction to the death of his mother, but this will become clear once they are catalogued.

Herbert Pendlebury, photograph in the John Pendlebury Family Papers. Copyright: The British School at Athens

So why is there a gap in the letters? Perhaps John ceased writing, or (as I believe to be more likely) the letters have been lost. He certainly did write to Herbert from Greece in 1923, as those letters were transcribed by Herbert into the 1923 travel log. Herbert moved to Malvern to live with his new wife, Mabel Dickinson (“Dickie”), in 1925. So perhaps the letters were lost in the move.

This week I will continue cataloguing John’s letters sent to his father from Greece in 1927-28, and then hopefully move on to his letters from London (when preparing for his marriage to Hilda White in 1928), Greece (during his honeymoon) and Egypt (1928-29).

 

Week 8, 23rd-27th Nov

I began the week by continuing working through John’s letters to his parents (Lilian and Herbert Pendlebury) from St George’s School in Broadstairs, Kent, which he attended until February 1917. I then catalogued letters sent to John’s parents from Beaudesert Park, Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire (May 1917 – Mar 1918), before moving on to his letters from Winchester College.

Letter to Herbert Pendlebury, from Beaudesert Park school (24 Mar 1918). Includes illustrations of Theseus killing the Minotaur and Hannibal drinking poison. Copyright: the British School at Athens

John usually sent letters home from school at least once a week, mainly written on Sundays and to his mother. There are occasional letters to Herbert Pendlebury, though mostly reporting on academic progress. The letters written to Lilian reveal a lot about John’s life at school, interactions with other pupils, and extra curricula activities. He was not shy of informing his mother about his misbehaving….

…only to find there was more excitement down at Commoner Gate so we went there in pyjamas and danced and sang Domum and heard speeches and cheered and were told to say “good night” by History Bill…which only made us sing Domum all through again. By the time we got really into bed it was 11 and there were morning lines the next morning.”

 

Letter to Lilian Pendlebury from John, sent from Winchester College. John mentions books by Henry Rider Haggard and uses Winchester College terminology. Copyright: British School at Athens

Last week I found myself browsing a list of books by Henry Rider Haggard, as the letters reveal that John was a big fan of these adventure stories. He often asked for these books from his parents, and discussed reading them or lending them to friends.

I have also been puzzling over terminology that was used at Winchester College, and that John used liberally in his letters home from the school. Winchester College was founded by William of Wykeham (Bishop of Winchester and former Chancellor of England) in the 14^th century and has been educating boys continuously since then.

Chapel at Winchester College. Photograph by Andrew Powers (2005), Wikimedia Commons.

I have been finding ‘Winchester College : a brief history & guide’, Winchester College’s website and the Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang useful for deciphering John’s letters from Winchester. Terms used include “cuse”, “sweats”, “Pots” and “Hatch Thoke”.

“Cuse” = the weekly order of the pupils’ marks in each division of the school. The term is used in sentences such as “I was 2^nd in cuse”.

“Sweats” = chores carried out by pupils.  Synonymous with the public school system of fagging.

“Pots”= house football (and possibly other sports) leagues.

“Hatch Thoke” = Founders commemoration day (holiday).

This week I will continue cataloguing John’s letters to his parents from Winchester College (there are over 100 of these), and then hopefully progress to some later letters by the end of the week.

 

 

Week 7, 16th-20th November

This week I have finished cataloguing the section of correspondence sent to Hilda Pendlebury, and begun cataloguing correspondence sent to John’s parents (Herbert and Lilian Pendlebury).

Some of letters that I catalogued at the beginning of the week were sent to Hilda after John’s death in 1941. These are evidence of how Hilda, Herbert and John’s friends and colleagues tried ascertain the exact circumstances of John’s death. This included gathering eyewitness reports from local Cretans (which are in the archive).

Photograph of John Pendlebury’s Grave at Souda Bay War Cemetery, Crete. Hilda visited John’s grave during a visit to Crete in 1947. Copyright: British School at Athens.

The letters sent to Hilda after 1941 also show how John was commemorated with an endowment for a school prize, a donation of books to the Villa Ariadne, obituaries, a bust in Heraklion (Crete) and the publication of ‘John Pendlebury in Crete’.

‘John Pendlebury in Crete’ was published in 1948 and includes a summary of what was known from investigations into John’s death in the form of a chapter written by Tom Dunbabin (‘Last Days – May 1941’). Hilda gave a copy of the book to many of John’s friends which prompted letters of reply reminiscing about John.

So many things come back to me as I think of him – his quirks and pranks as assistant secretary of the P.C.D.S. Ye Joyeux Companie of St Pol which he founded – a strange secret society assembled to tell stories, one of which was told by the Grand Seneschale on behalf of the absent Master of the College

(From a letter by Rowe Harding, a friend of John’s at Pembroke College)

I spent the second half of this week (back-in-time a few decades) cataloguing some of John’s childhood letters to his parents. I have been cataloguing letters sent from St George’s School in Broadstairs, Kent, from 1915-1916. The school faced out to the English Channel and John witnessed warships (passing by and once firing at a submarine), air raid sirens and being called to the “dug out” (air raid shelter), and aeroplanes and zeppelins flying overhead. This was all very exciting to a boy of 12 and the games he played with his friends often involved battles, raids on dormitories, and building armoured cars and trains.

A file of letters from John to his parents (Herbert and Lilian Pendlebury), 1915-1916. Copyright: British School at Athens

Next week I will continue cataloguing John’s letters to his parents.

Week 6, 9th – 13th November

This week I have been continuing to catalogue letters sent to Hilda Pendlebury using the template in Microsoft Word (explained in the previous blog post).

Letter sent home by John, Christmas 1940 Copyright: British School at Athens

Whilst reading the letters, which is necessary when cataloguing to item-level, I have been learning more about John and Hilda Pendlebury and people that they knew. The more I read, the more light is shed onto the characters that appear in the collection.

The letter that John sent home for Christmas in December 1940 reveals something of his attitude towards authority. ..

I am making a grand collection of tickings off – usually beginning “In future you should NOT repeat NOT”. As far as I can see the authorities are not unlike Greek grannies and are apt to stand roofs scolding people.

The amount of time it takes to catalogue each letter is extremely variable depending on how easy it is to understand the content of the letter, and how easy it is to read. Below is an example of a letter which took me a little while to decipher. It is from Hilda’s mother and mainly describes her illness, discusses David and Joan [John and Hilda’s children] and gives news of other extended family members.

Side 2 of a letter to Hilda Pendlebury from her mother Copyright: British School at Athens

Next week I will continue cataloguing correspondence sent to Hilda Pendlebury, then make a start on cataloguing correspondence sent to John’s parents.

Week 5, 2nd-6th November 2015

This week I have mostly been cataloguing the correspondence section of the John Pendlebury Family Papers. I have completed the draft catalogue of a section of letters sent to John Pendlebury (including many thanking him for a copy of his book, ‘The Archaeology of Crete’), and have begun cataloguing a section of letters sent to Hilda Pendlebury.

Original file of letters sent to Hilda Pendlebury in The John Pendlebury Family Papers

I am initially cataloguing using Microsoft Word. This is because although I now have access to the cataloguing system that will be used for the project (KE EMu), we have not had a chance to perfect the set-up for archives cataloguing. The John Pendlebury Family Papers will be the first archives collection at the British School to be directly catalogued into the program.

KE EMu has already been used at the British School to catalogue museum collections and part of the archaeological sherds collection. It has also been used to enter legacy data from the archives, including the catalogue of the Byzantine Research Fund collection. KE EMu is the basis of ‘Museums and Archives Online: digital repositories of the BSA Collection’ (http://mao.bsa.ac.uk/), and the plan is to present the digitised John Pendlebury Family Papers using this platform.

Beginning the cataloguing in Word rather than KE EMu may be advantageous because it has made me think about the data fields needed, rather than being restrained by what the program initially offers.

Before starting cataloguing I drafted a template of the basic data elements that would be needed for most descriptions. To do this I looked at ISAD(G) and some past catalogues that I have produced. I added a ‘previous reference’ field (even though that does not appear in ISAD(G)) because in my experience this can be very helpful. The John Pendlebury Family Papers have accession numbers stamped onto them, as well as up to 2 more previous references. If someone wants to follow up a reference from their past use of the Pendlebury papers or from someone else’s past use, these previous references will be invaluable.

Here is the basic template for individual catalogue entries:

Title:

Reference Code:

Previous reference:

Level of description:

Covering dates:

Extent and medium:

Content and context:

The highlight of this week’s cataloguing has been John’s letters to Hilda. Typed copies of two letters sent from Crete in 1935 paint amusing (if sometimes a little harsh) pictures of his companions.

“The Squire got back looking like nothing on earth! He wore a white (?) suit which he was too modest to take off when sharing a terrace with Mercy. It was also not improved by a vertical tail spin he went into near Erganos which tore the trousers and revealed the good long winter woollies below. His hat was the floppy canvas white one you have at your prep school and the vision I have of him with his trousers rolled up to his knees and his boots around his neck walking up the main street of Arvi from where he had been paddling I will never forget. With all this he insisted on shaving (most inadequately) every morning. But on the other hand he was always up and about early“.

A letter sent to Hilda during John’s train journey to Chalkidiki in 1928, signed “Jehan”. This is a reference to Jehane St Pol, a character in John’s favourite book ‘The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and Nay’ by Hewlett (1900). Copyright: The British School at Athens

Next week I will continue cataloguing the section of letters sent to Hilda Pendlebury.

About the John Pendlebury Family Papers…

A poster from a BSA exhibition about John Pendlebury, first shown in 2001, to commemorate the Battle of Crete

The John Pendlebury Family Papers not only tell us about the life and work of John Pendlebury, they contain a wealth of information on John’s parents and stepmother, Hilda Pendlebury (née White), Hilda’s family, and many colleagues and friends of the couple.

The collection has been named the “John Pendlebury Family Papers” rather than the John Pendlebury Papers because of the mixed provenance of the collection. For example there are many letters within the collection that were sent to John’s parents and to Hilda.

Unlike many personal papers collections, this is not a collection which belonged to John in its complete state. The bulk of the collection was given to the British School on the recommendation of a Curator at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, who had  received it from Joan Pendlebury (John and Hilda’s daughter). Material had been extracted and given to the Egyptian Exploration Society before it arrived at the BSA.

Some further material came to the British School from Hilda Pendlebury, via the Society for Hellenic Travel, in 1976. Material was later received from Sinclair Hood (former Director of the British School at Athens and excavator at Knossos), and most recently moved from the Mercy (Money-Coutts) Seiradakis collection and excavation records in the British School Archives into the Pendlebury collection.

A file of letters thanking John for sending copies of his book ‘The Archaeology of Crete’ in 1939

The John Pendlebury Family papers have previously been sorted and catalogued to some degree by a student on an Archives and Records Management MA course, during a 2 week work placement.

The current project to digitise and catalogue the papers in detail is being generously funded by the Wykeham Patrons of Winchester College.

About John and Hilda Pendlebury…

John and Hilda Pendlebury (née White) first met at the British School at Athens in 1927.  Hilda was taking a sabbatical year from being a school teacher and John had been given a studentship to trace Egyptian finds in Greece. Together with other students from the school they travelled around Greece, hiking and visiting archaeological sites. In September 1928 John and Hilda were married in Britain.

John and Hilda Pendlebury on their wedding day, from the Pendlebury Family Papers. Copyright: British School at Athens

In the following years of their marriage John worked as an archaeologist at Knossos, Tell el Amarna (in Egypt) and various sites around the Lasithi Plain in East Crete. Hilda often worked with John, but did not always accompany him once their children (David and Joan) were born in 1932 and 1934.

During the Second World War John was in Crete, utilising his knowledge of the language and topography of the island, and his extensive network of local friends, whilst working for the British Special Operations Executive (undercover as Vice-Consul).

John died during the German invasion of Crete in May 1941, but the exact circumstances of his death were not known for certain until years later. Hilda and John’s father (Herbert) undertook substantial investigations (which are documented in the archive) to find out what exactly had happened to John.

John’s final resting place is in Souda Bay War Cemetery in Crete, which Hilda visited whilst attending a memorial service in Heraklion in 1947.