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Rawes, Bernard Frederick, (1917-1995), farmer librarian archaeologist

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Surname: Rawes
Forenames: Bernard Frederick
Gender: Male
Date: 1917-1995
History: Bernard Rawes was born on 25 October 1917 in Oporto, where his father ran the family maritime insurance company. The Rawes came originally from the Lake District but had been established in Portugal for several generations. Bernard Rawes was educated at Charterhouse and worked briefly in banking in London before being commissioned into the Devonshire Regiment during the war. Afterwards, he farmed in Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire and Herefordshire before settling in the Cheltenham area in 1952 and finally abandoning farming in 1955 for a career as a technical librarian. In the late fifties he began to study geology and in 1962 joined the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society with a view to participating in excavations. He undertook his first rescue dig in 1966 on the new College of Art kiln site in Gloucester. Rescue excavation became his speciality, and with his wife he either excavated or identified a number of sites including Sudeley in 1968; Tredington Rise, Stoke Orchard in 1969; Wells Bridge, Barnwood, 1971; Brockworth Court allotments, 1973; the Portway, Upton St Leonards 1976/9; Haymes, Cleeve Hill, 1974/82; Northleach Bypass, 1983; and Vinyards Farm 1980/4. For more than a quarter of a century Rawes was an established figure in Gloucestershire archaeology; he was an early member of the Gloucester and District Archaeological Research Group, its secretary and later editor of its review, Glevensis; he was the first secretary of the Committee for Archaeology in Gloucestershire and for many years its chairman; and he was founder and editor for nineteen years of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society's Archaeological Review. He was to have been president of the B.G.A.S. in 1995-6, a well-deserved honour he did not live to fulfil. Rawes' own special study was the local Romano-British pottery types and Samian ware, and he took pride in the fact that all his excavations were published and the numerous sites he identified were recorded in the county's Sites and Monuments Record. He assembled one of the largest archaeological libraries in the county, tended his garden and researched the family's pedigree. He died on 8 June 1995.
Sources of authority: http://www.sal.org.uk/obituaries/Obituary%20archive/bernard-rawes
Name authority reference: GB/NNAF/P228940
Collections
Number Description Held by Reference Further information
1
c1960-1995: archaeological papers relating to Romano-British sites in Gloucestershire, including field notebooks
Gloucestershire Archives
D5018