Makers and Shapers Profile

Oliver Davies

Commissioned Contributor

7 May 1905 - 26 August 1986

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA, 2017, using material written by Val Ward of KZNM, and the obituary of Oliver Davies in the Natalia journal: Oliver Davies was born in Chelsea, London in 1905. He studied Classics at the University of Oxford. He worked as a lecturer in Archaeology and Ancient History at Queen’s University in 1930, and was appointed secretary of a committee of the British Association in 1935. In 1948 he moved to South Africa and took up the Chair of Classics at the University of Natal Pietermaritzburg. He left Natal in 1951, but returned in 1966 following his retirement from the University of the Gold Coast in Ghana. He started the Natal Branch of the South African Archaeological Society in 1949, and did voluntary work at the Natal Museum during his time in Natal, curating both his own and earlier collections. He became Keeper of Antiquities at Natal Museum in 1968 and in 1978 was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Literature by the University of Natal. He also looked after the archaeological collections and site records at the Natal Museum, until the appointment of Tim Maggs in 1971. For his services to archaeology in Natal he was made Life Patron of the Natal Branch of the South African Archaeological Society in 1986. Oliver Davies was murdered in his home on 26 August 1986.]