John Devitt Stringfellow Pendlebury (12 October 1904 – 22 May 1941) was a British archaeologist who worked for British intelligence during World War II. He was captured and summarily executed by German troops during the Battle of Crete.
Early life
John Pendlebury was born in London, the eldest son of Herbert Stringfellow Pendlebury, a London surgeon,. and Lilian Dorothea ( Devitt), a daughter of Sir Thomas Lane Devitt, 1st Baronet, part owner of Devitt and Moore, a shipping company..
At the age of about two, he lost an eye while in the care of a friend of his parents. Conflicting reports of the accident were given.. He used a glass eye, which, it has been said by people who knew him, was generally mistaken for a real one.. Throughout his life, he remained determined to out-perform persons with two eyes. As a child, he was taken to see Wallis Budge at the British Museum. During the conversation, he apparently resolved to become an Egyptian archaeologist. Budge told him to study Classics before making up his mind. His mother died when he was 17, leaving him a legacy from his grandfather that made him financially independent. His father remarried but had no further children. Pendlebury got along well with his stepmother, Mabel Webb Pendlebury, and her son, Robin. He remained the centre of his father's affections, whom he called "daddy" in letters.
He was educated at Winchester (1918-1923), before winning scholarships at Pembroke College, Cambridge. At the University of Cambridge he was awarded a Second in Part I and a First in Part II of the Classical Tripos, "with distinction in archaeology".. He also shone as a sportsman, with an athletics blue and competing internationally as a high jumper. Pendlebury finished second behind Carl Van Geysel in the high jump event at the 1926 AAA Championships.
He was painted by Sir William Nicholson as "A Cambridge Blue, John D. S. Pendlebury".
The archaeologist
During the Easter holidays of 1923, Pendlebury and a master from Winchester had travelled to Greece, Pendlebury for the first time; visiting the excavations at Mycenae, they conversed with Alan Wace, then Director of the British School at Athens. Wace remembered him as a boy who wished "to see things for himself". The visit solidified his determination to become an archaeologist.
Student at the British School On leaving university in 1927 Pendlebury won the Cambridge University Studentship to the British School at Athens. Unable to decide between Egyptian and Greek archaeology, he decided to do both and study Egyptian artefacts found in Greece. This study resulted in his Catalogue of Egyptian Objects in the Aegean area, published in 1930.
In Athens, Pendlebury stayed at the British School's student hostel, which also provided lodging for visiting scholars doing research in Greece. They dined with the students, conversing with them and each other on scholarly topics. Pendlebury wrote his first impressions to his father, that they were so learned, "It makes me feel such an impostor being there at all.".
He soon found the companionship more to his liking. He hiked the Greek countryside with Sylvia Benton, who had excavated in Ithaca, competing with her to see who could walk the fastest, and became friends with Pierson Dixon, later British ambassador to France. He struck up a friendship also with another archaeology student, Hilda White, 13 years older than he was. Exploring the Acropolis of Athens with her, he climbed over the parapet and announced to the guard "I am a Persian."
The students explored Greece in groups, living an athletic life, in contrast to the sedentary preferences of the scholars. Pendlebury discovered 10 miles of an ancient road at Mycenae, where he also attended a village dance by a bonfire. Pendlebury also found time to play tennis and hockey, and to form an athletic team for running and jumping. He first visited Crete in 1928 with the other students. After a rough sea crossing at night they hastened on to Knossos, which Pendlebury at first concluded was "spoilt" by the restorations.. The students then toured eastern Crete by automobile over muddy dirt roads, and in frequent heavy rain and snow. At the eastern end, they attempted to reach Mochlos and Pseira by leaking boat, but failed. They were prepared to swim for it. Pendlebury wrote a poem about the fleas he encountered while lodging in Sitia.
Resuming a busy life in Athens, Pendlebury was invited to his first excavation by the Assistant Director of the school, Walter Abel Heurtley, at an ancient Macedonian site near Salonica. Hilda White was invited also and became his constant companion. Unknown to Pendlebury, a close connection had always existed between the British School and Sir Arthur Evans. Evans apparently heard of Pendlebury's activities in Crete and Macedonia. Later in the year, in more propitious weather, Pendlebury was invited to stay at the Villa Ariadne with Evans and Duncan Mackenzie. Hilda White stayed in Heraklion. She reported that Mackenzie confided to Pendlebury in having "my own idea," which he did not tell to Evans.
By the end of the visit Evans was suggesting that Pendlebury might excavate in southern Crete, or even at Knossos.. For a time Pendlebury became preoccupied with his marriage to White. His family was at first opposed to the match on the basis of the age difference. After Pendlebury wrote that they could not live without each other, the wedding was approved, after an acquaintance of one year. For a honeymoon, the couple undertook a physically arduous exploration of the mountainous northern Peloponnesus..
In the winter of 1928–1929, the Pendleburys visited Egypt for the first time. They assisted briefly in the excavation at Armant, then, late in 1928, at Tel el-Amarna. Excavations at Amarna had been started 40 years earlier by Flinders Petrie, but were then continuing under the directorship of Hans Frankfort for the Egypt Exploration Society. Hans Frankfort and his wife, Yettie, had been students at the British School before Pendlebury's arrival there. They were friends of Humfry Payne, whose wife, Dilys, would become Pendlebury's biographer in the latter part of her life. Humfry was appointed Director of the British School in 1929, still in his 20s..
John's studentship ended at the end of 1928; it was replaced by the Macmillan Studentship for another year's study, but only in Greece. The Pendleburys missed the subsequent winter at Amarna. In 1930 Payne and Dilys travelled to Crete to survey Eleutherna prior to its excavation, inviting the Pendleburys to accompany them. Humfry and Dilys stayed in the Villa Ariadne, where Evans, MacKenzie, and Gilliéron, Evans' fresco restorer, were at work, while John and Hilda Pendlebury joined Piet de Jong, Evans' artist, at the nearby Taverna.. Knossos had been donated to the British School in 1924, but Evans retained control for the time being, continuing the restorations, and bringing affairs there to a conclusion. The donation had not only disposed of the estate, ensuring its continuity, but gave Evans virtual control of the British School as well. One matter requiring disposition was the retirement of his Director of Excavation, Duncan MacKenzie, now past 65 and in very poor health due to alcoholism, malaria, and the effects of a career of physically demanding work at Knossos. His retirement was set for the end of 1929, but Pendlebury represented an opportunity Evans could not neglect.
Pendlebury was looking for a position to begin when his studentship ran out. Someone at Knossos suggested he apply for permission to excavate in Crete. Later back in Athens his father recommended he return home and apply for a lectureship. He wrote back rejecting the plan, stating that he did not want "an academic life". Shortly afterward an unsigned, confidential telegram arrived asking if Duncan should retire in the autumn of 1929, would he be interested in the Directorship of Knossos? The telegram could only have come from Evans or Payne. Guessing Evans correctly, Pendlebury cabled back, "answer affirmative".. There is no evidence that he was party to, or even knew about, the events of that autumn. Evans claimed that he had found MacKenzie sleeping during working hours and that he was drunk. Retirement was to become effective immediately. Piet de Jong opposed this move, claiming Duncan did not drink. The truth of the story made little difference to Duncan. He was so ill that he had to be placed in the care of his family, and could not be moved from Athens.
Director at Knossos and Amarna
In the autumn of 1929 Arthur Evans appointed Pendlebury curator of the archaeological site at Knossos to replace MacKenzie. He was not required to assume the post of Knossos Curator until the spring of 1930. Meanwhile, he and Hilda toured Sicily and hiked over the mountains between Athens and Thebes. John taught Hilda the sport of fencing. He organised a student hockey match with a team from the Royal Navy. An article of his attempting to fit the siege of Troy into history was attacked by H. R. Hall of the British Museum. Pendlebury was outraged at this first professional critique of his work, claiming he had supported his conclusions fully with data. The Pendleburys arrived at the Villa Ariadne in March to assume the new post, but there was no improvement in contention. Almost immediately they received a second shock. A student at the British School had been invited to photograph some Greek vases in a private home and, during the shoot, the police burst in, arresting the owners of the vases for trying to sell antiquities out of the country.
Spyridon Marinatos, director of the Museum at Heraklion, wrote a note of protest to Pendlebury who demanded an investigation. Humfry Payne complained to the Ministry of Archaeology. Ultimately the British School was exonerated with an apology. Hall died in October. Of John, Dilys Powell wrote, "He would never ignore an offence"..
By the time Pendlebury assumed the curatorship of Knossos, the site was overgrown, animals browsed freely among the ruins, and some buildings were in disrepair. In addition, the remaining agricultural land had to be leased. Visitation increased, much from dignitaries who required hosting. Sir Arthur Evans arrived with detailed instructions. While Evans refurbished the Taverna, situated on the edge of the Villa Ariadne property, with furniture and rugs, Pendlebury began sorting crates of artefacts from the excavation. He planned to add an archaeological library to the villa, now the headquarters of the British School on Crete. The Pendleburys were to occupy the Taverna, which, like the Villa, was a social centre for the archaeologists when the curator was not in residence. Piet de Jong had left Knossos to be with Humfry Payne during a new excavation at Perachora (near Corinth).
Because of the amount of work, which kept the Pendleburys and Evans busy from dawn until dusk, John welcomed the end of the season in July. Arthur and John excavated the Theatre Area. Evans' enthusiasm for his young acolyte was not entirely reciprocated. Pendlebury wrote to his father, "Evans is obviously itching to get my time here extended. That I will not have." When Evans left for the season, he wrote, "We have got rid of Evans thank the Lord ...".