Hubert Newman Savory M.A., F.S.A (1911-2001) 82^nd President

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There is a brief note about Hubert Savory in Volume XCIV of the Transactions in an article entitled "A Hundred Years of Archaeology in the Cardiff Region 1867 -1967

A graduate of Oxford, who came to the Department of Archaeology at the Museum in 1938 as an Assistant, and a year later became Assistant Keeper. After the death of Nash-Williams he was appointed Keeper and has remained so up to the present. Much of his work has been outside the Cardiff region, as befits an official of a national institution, but he has made numerous excavations locally, and has played a prominent part in the activities of the Cardiff Naturalists' Society, serving for many years as Editor of its Transactions.

That brief summary hardly does justice to the ways that he served the museum or society. He was appointed Assistant Keeper of Archaeology at NMW in 1939 and started his membership immediately as was normal at that time for senior staff of the Museum and was regularly speaking to members even during the war.

H N Savory's early lectures from Vol. LXXII - LXXVIII CNS Transactions covering 1939-1945

During WW2 he was in Military Intelligence because of his expertise in cartography and aerial photography. He excavated the Neolithic tomb at Penwyrlod, Powys and Dinorben Iron Age hill fort (from 1965-69) and published several catalogues of prehistoric material held at NMW

He was firstly a committee member of the Archaeological section and then Secretary of that section and then Hon. Librarian and Editor of the Parent Society. In 1956-57 he was President of the Archaeological Section and then in 1960-61 President of the Parent Society when he delivered his presidential address on "An Archaeologist in Portugal". Throughout this time he presented many papers to the society meetings and led many field trips. He had been promoted to Keeper in 1955 which was a position he held until 1976

Even that date was not to end his active work as noted in this appointment in 1979 and covering the years up to 1983.

Royal Commission reappointment

As has been mentioned above in his presidential address it was not just Wales that he worked in and one of his key works was "Spain and Portugal : the prehistory of the Iberian peninsula". he had been a Randall-Maciver fellow at Queen's College Oxford where he did research on the Archaeology of the Iberian Penninsular in 1936-38 and before coming to cardiff as noted above.

His publication lists are immense and far too detailed to record here numbering around 83 in total. One simply needs to search for his name to come up with literally hundreds of references to his works and acknowledgements from others for the help, assistance and guidance that he gave to them.

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Before this... Edith M Sheppard, F.Z.S. 81^st President

Next up... Professor James Brough D.Sc., F.R.S.E 83^rd President

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These pages are part of the Cardiff Naturalists' Society 150th Anniversary celebrations and are about our history and are celebrating the people who developed our Society and helped build the city and the cultural heritage of Cardiff. You can read more about that using the links above

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