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Ralph Merrifield
Ralph Merrifield (22 August 1913 – 9 January 1995) was an English museum curator and archaeologist. Described as "the father of London's modern archaeology", Merrifield was a specialist in the archaeology of both Roman London and magical practices, publishing six books on these subjects over the course of his life.
Merrifield began his career in 1930 as an assistant at Brighton Museum. In 1935 he gained an external degree in anthropology from the University of London. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Air Force. In 1950 he became assistant keeper of the Guildhall Museum in London. In 1956 he relocated to Accra to oversee the opening of the new National Museum of Ghana, before returning to work at the Guildhall Museum. He produced a synthesis of known material on the archaeology of Roman London, published as The Roman City of London in 1965.
He was appointed senior keeper of the new Museum of London on its establishment in 1976, and soon after was promoted to deputy director. He retired in 1978 but remained active, lecturing, and publishing The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic (1987) and further studies of Roman London. He was a keen supporter of the Standing Conference on London Archaeology, a body designed to monitor the impact that English Heritage was having on the city's archaeology, which he believed to be negative.
Merrifield was born on 22 August 1913 in Temple Fortune, a suburb of north-west London that at the time was yet to be fully developed. His parents had married in 1912, and his father, Albert Merrifield, was a railway clerk, whereas his mother, Margaret, had "excellent qualifications and was experienced as a primary school teacher". About a year after his birth the family moved to Southend-on-Sea, Essex, where his father died aged 36 on 6 May 1916: Merrifield was then three months short of his third birthday. His mother then moved with him to Brighton, Sussex, on the south coast of England, where they lived with her parents above a shoe shop run by her father.
Merrifield's education began at Pelham Street Council School in Brighton, where "a report issued on 29 September 1922, when he was nine years old, [used] the phrase 'top boy' twice in connection with his scholarly progress." He undertook his secondary education at the Municipal Secondary School for Boys on York Place in Brighton, and it was while studying there, in 1930, that he became an assistant to H. S. Toms, curator of Brighton Museum and former assistant to the archaeologist Augustus Pitt Rivers. Inspired by the museum's ethnographic collection, which he helped catalogue, Merrifield embarked on a University of London external degree, which he completed in 1935; although its main focus was on anthropology, taking the degree also allowed him to take an intermediate course in botany. It was at this time that he developed a keen interest in the archaeological evidence for religion and magical practices.
In 1940, during the Second World War, Merrifield was conscripted into the Royal Air Force, and in 1943 was transferred to its intelligence division, specialising in the interpretation of aerial photographs. He was posted to India and then Java. In 1945, after the conflict ended, he returned to work at Brighton Museum.
In 1950 Merrifield took a post as assistant keeper of the Guildhall Museum in London, a job that he would retain until 1975. At the time the museum lacked premises, and Merrifield assisted its keeper, Norman Cook, in establishing an exhibit at the Royal Exchange in 1954. During these post-war years the city's archaeological community was largely preoccupied with salvaging Roman and medieval structures damaged in the Blitz, and by subsequent urban redevelopment.
In November 1956 Merrifield was sent to Accra in Ghana to establish the National Museum of Ghana. The museum was due to be completed in time for the day of Ghana's independence from Britain in April 1957, displaying exhibits that had previously been at the University Museum of Ghana. Upon arrival Merrifield found that construction was delayed, but, "by an ingenious co-ordination of processes", he had the museum ready for its official opening by the Duchess of Kent. Returning to the Guildhall Museum he campaigned for the archaeological excavation of sites prior to their redevelopment, resulting in the establishment of the museum's Department of Urban Archaeology in 1973.
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Ralph Merrifield
Ralph Merrifield (22 August 1913 – 9 January 1995) was an English museum curator and archaeologist. Described as "the father of London's modern archaeology", Merrifield was a specialist in the archaeology of both Roman London and magical practices, publishing six books on these subjects over the course of his life.
Merrifield began his career in 1930 as an assistant at Brighton Museum. In 1935 he gained an external degree in anthropology from the University of London. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Air Force. In 1950 he became assistant keeper of the Guildhall Museum in London. In 1956 he relocated to Accra to oversee the opening of the new National Museum of Ghana, before returning to work at the Guildhall Museum. He produced a synthesis of known material on the archaeology of Roman London, published as The Roman City of London in 1965.
He was appointed senior keeper of the new Museum of London on its establishment in 1976, and soon after was promoted to deputy director. He retired in 1978 but remained active, lecturing, and publishing The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic (1987) and further studies of Roman London. He was a keen supporter of the Standing Conference on London Archaeology, a body designed to monitor the impact that English Heritage was having on the city's archaeology, which he believed to be negative.
Merrifield was born on 22 August 1913 in Temple Fortune, a suburb of north-west London that at the time was yet to be fully developed. His parents had married in 1912, and his father, Albert Merrifield, was a railway clerk, whereas his mother, Margaret, had "excellent qualifications and was experienced as a primary school teacher". About a year after his birth the family moved to Southend-on-Sea, Essex, where his father died aged 36 on 6 May 1916: Merrifield was then three months short of his third birthday. His mother then moved with him to Brighton, Sussex, on the south coast of England, where they lived with her parents above a shoe shop run by her father.
Merrifield's education began at Pelham Street Council School in Brighton, where "a report issued on 29 September 1922, when he was nine years old, [used] the phrase 'top boy' twice in connection with his scholarly progress." He undertook his secondary education at the Municipal Secondary School for Boys on York Place in Brighton, and it was while studying there, in 1930, that he became an assistant to H. S. Toms, curator of Brighton Museum and former assistant to the archaeologist Augustus Pitt Rivers. Inspired by the museum's ethnographic collection, which he helped catalogue, Merrifield embarked on a University of London external degree, which he completed in 1935; although its main focus was on anthropology, taking the degree also allowed him to take an intermediate course in botany. It was at this time that he developed a keen interest in the archaeological evidence for religion and magical practices.
In 1940, during the Second World War, Merrifield was conscripted into the Royal Air Force, and in 1943 was transferred to its intelligence division, specialising in the interpretation of aerial photographs. He was posted to India and then Java. In 1945, after the conflict ended, he returned to work at Brighton Museum.
In 1950 Merrifield took a post as assistant keeper of the Guildhall Museum in London, a job that he would retain until 1975. At the time the museum lacked premises, and Merrifield assisted its keeper, Norman Cook, in establishing an exhibit at the Royal Exchange in 1954. During these post-war years the city's archaeological community was largely preoccupied with salvaging Roman and medieval structures damaged in the Blitz, and by subsequent urban redevelopment.
In November 1956 Merrifield was sent to Accra in Ghana to establish the National Museum of Ghana. The museum was due to be completed in time for the day of Ghana's independence from Britain in April 1957, displaying exhibits that had previously been at the University Museum of Ghana. Upon arrival Merrifield found that construction was delayed, but, "by an ingenious co-ordination of processes", he had the museum ready for its official opening by the Duchess of Kent. Returning to the Guildhall Museum he campaigned for the archaeological excavation of sites prior to their redevelopment, resulting in the establishment of the museum's Department of Urban Archaeology in 1973.