Terence Bruce Mitford FBA FSA (sometimes known as Terence Bruce-Mitford) (11 May 1905 – 8 November 1978) was a Scottish archaeologist and classicist. He spent his whole career at the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

, and had a special interest in the history and archaeology of Cyprus and southern Turkey, making many expeditions to these areas. His academic life was interrupted by the Second World War, during which he served with the

Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling and in 1950, it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terro ...

and

Special Boat Service The Special Boat Service (SBS) is the special forces unit of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. The SBS can trace its origins back to the Second World War when the Army Special Boat Section was formed in 1940. After the Second World War, the Roya ...

Biography

Mitford was born in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

, Japan. His father was Charles Eustace Bruce Mitford, and Mitford's name was sometimes given as "Bruce-Mitford". A brother was

Rupert Bruce-Mitford Rupert Leo Scott Bruce-Mitford, FBA, FSA (14 June 1914 – 10 March 1994) was a British archaeologist and scholar, best known for his multi-volume publication on the Sutton Hoo ship burial. He was a noted academic as the Slade Professor of F ...

. Mitford was educated at

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2–19 independent, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose of ...

before reading Literae Humaniores at

Jesus College, Oxford Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship St ...

– his rugby-playing interfered with his studies, and he did not obtain as high a class of degree as hoped. He spent his entire career at the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

, teaching Latin text and prose composition, but his main interest was archaeology, in which he involved residents of St Andrews as well as students. He spent time in the 1930s on excavations in Cyprus – his main archaeological interest throughout his career was the exploration of the inscriptions on Cyprus. His obituary, in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', said that Mitford "contributed more than anyone has ever done to our knowledge of the mass of documentation which exists in the Cypriot dialect and the Cypriot syllabic script." He also worked on the history of Cyprus, looking at the island in

Ptolemaic Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to: Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty * Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter * Ptolemaic Kingdom Pertaining ...

and early Roman times. Shortly after the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he was commissioned into the

Dorset Regiment The Dorset Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1958, being the county regiment of Dorset. Until 1951, it was formally called the Dorsetshire Regiment, although usually known as "The Dorsets". In 1 ...

as a

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

on 15 October 1939. Transferred to the Special Operations Executive in June 1940, he was involved with

John Pendlebury 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 Summary execution, summarily executed by German troops during the ...

in establishing a resistance organisation in Crete, and during the

Battle of Crete The Battle of Crete (german: Luftlandeschlacht um Kreta, el, Μάχη της Κρήτης), codenamed Operation Mercury (german: Unternehmen Merkur), was a major Axis airborne and amphibious operation during World War II to capture the island ...

organised the defence of

Rethymno Rethymno ( el, Ρέθυμνο, , also ''Rethimno'', ''Rethymnon'', ''Réthymnon'', and ''Rhíthymnos'') is a city in Greece on the island of Crete. It is the capital of Rethymno regional unit, and has a population of more than 30,000 inhabitants ...

airfield against the German parachutists. Escaping when the island fell, he set up the SOE station in

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

, recruited a band of convicted murderers, Kurds and Armenians, and organised SOE work for eastern Turkey, where they were to form a resistance force. But the German advance stalled in the Caucasus. Redeploying his

Kalpak Calpack, kalpak, or qalpaq ( kaa, калпак, tr, kalpak ; kk, қалпақ, ky, калпак, both ; bg, калпак; el, καλπάκι ('); pl, kołpak; uk, ковпак, ') is a high-crowned cap (usually made of felt or sheepski ...

s into the

, he took part with them in the

Allied invasion of Sicily The Allied invasion of Sicily, also known as Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II in which the Allied forces invaded the island of Sicily in July 1943 and took it from the Axis powers ( Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany). It bega ...

with the

Special Raiding Squadron The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling and in 1950, it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terr ...

, in July 1943. Later he served in the

in the Aegean, where in February 1944 he eliminated the German garrison of the holy island of

Patmos Patmos ( el, Πάτμος, ) is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. It is famous as the location where John of Patmos received the visions found in the Book of Revelation of the New Testament, and where the book was written. One of the northernmos ...

, and distributed food to the starving population. When the SBS moved to the Adriatic, he returned to Crete as Liaison Officer with

ELAS The Greek People's Liberation Army ( el, Ελληνικός Λαϊκός Απελευθερωτικός Στρατός (ΕΛΑΣ), ''Ellinikós Laïkós Apeleftherotikós Stratós'' (ELAS) was the military arm of the left-wing National Liberat ...

, and battles against the German occupying forces.^{/sup> For his war service to Greece, he was decorated by the Greek King, exceptionally, with the Knight's Cross of the Royal Order of George I, with Swords. After the war, he returned to St Andrews (where he was attached to the Officer Training Corps

The Officers' Training Corps (OTC), more fully called the University Officers' Training Corps (UOTC), are military leadership training units operated by the British Army. Their focus is to develop the leadership abilities of their members whilst ...
) and resumed his archaeological explorations in Cyprus. He was promoted to major

Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
on 1 April 1948, and nominally transferred to the Intelligence Corps. In his later career, he also looked at the archaeology and epigraphy

Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...
of southern Turkey, making many expeditions there. He found many previously unknown inscriptions, assisting the work of the Austrian Academy of Sciences's Committee for the Archaeological Exploration of Asia Minor. His explorations were aided by his physical stamina, his resilience and his fluency in Greek and Turkish.

Mitford was appointed Reader

A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to:
Computing and technology
* Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader
* Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application
* A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...
in Classical Archaeology and retired as Honorary Emeritus Professor in 1973, the year that he was awarded a DLitt

Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Doctor ...
by the University of Oxford

, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
; he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy

Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are:

# Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom
# C ...
in the following year. He was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London

A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societ ...
in 1940, and was also a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute and a Fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In retirement, he continued his hobby of studying birds, compiling data on Scandinavian migration and becoming an advisor to the government of Jordan on bird conservation. He died on 8 November 1978, aged 73.

Publications

Contributions to the Epigraphy of Cyprus. Some Pre-Roman Inscriptions from Kouklia
''Mnemosyne'' (1938).
* Religious Documents from Roman Cyprus ''The Journal of Hellenic Studies'' (1946).

Notes on Some Published Inscriptions from Roman Cyprus
''The Annual of the British School at Athens'' (1947).

Kafizin and the Cypriot Syllabary
''The Classical Quarterly'' (1950).

Some new inscriptions from early Christian Cyprus
''Byzantium'' (1958).

Three Inscriptions of Marium
''Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies'' (1958).

Helenos, Governor of Cyprus
''The Journal of Hellenic Studies'' (1959).
* A Cypriot Oath of Allegiance to Tiberius ''The Journal of Roman Studies'' (1960).

The Hellenistic Inscriptions of Old Paphos
''The Annual of the British School at Athens'' (1961).

Further Contributions to the Epigraphy of Cyprus
''American Journal of Archaeology'' (1961).
* The Inscriptions of Kourion. American Philosophical Society (1971).
* The Cypro-Minoan Inscriptions of Old Paphos ''Kadmos'' (1971).
*

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitford, Terence Bruce
1905 births
1978 deaths
Scottish archaeologists
Scottish classical scholars
People educated at Dulwich College
Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford
Academics of the University of St Andrews
Fellows of the British Academy
Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London
Special Air Service officers
British Army personnel of World War II}