Walter Abel Heurtley | |
|---|---|
 Photographed during the excavation of Chauchitza in Macedonia, 1921 | |
| Born | 24 October 1882 Ashington, Sussex |
| Died | 2 January 1955 (aged 72) Dublin |
| Occupation | Classical archaeologist |
| Spouse |
Eileen Mary O'Connell
(m. 1914) |
| Family | Charles Abel Heurtley (grandfather) |
| Awards | |
| Academic background | |
| Education | |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service/ | British Army |
| Rank | Temporary Major |
| Unit | |
| Wars | First World War |
Walter Abel Heurtley OBE FSA (24 October 1882 – 2 January 1955) was a British classical archaeologist. The son of a Church of England vicar, he was educated at Uppingham School and read classics at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, on a scholarship. Upon leaving Cambridge, he worked as a teacher at The Oratory School, and became a reserve officer in the Royal Engineers. He served in the East Lancashire Regiment during the First World War, where he was mentioned in dispatches three times and acted as deputy governor of the British military prison at Salonika in Greece.
After the war, Heurtley studied classical archaeology at Oriel College, Oxford, under Percy Gardner and with Stanley Casson, the assistant director of the British School at Athens (BSA). Heurtley followed Casson to the BSA, excavating in 1921 with him in Macedonia, and with the school's director, Alan Wace, at Mycenae. In 1923, Heurtley succeeded Casson as the BSA's assistant director, and also assumed the role of its librarian; he held both posts until his dismissal, on financial grounds, in 1932. He subsequently became the librarian of the Department of Antiquities of the Mandate for Palestine, a position he held until 1939, and ended his career as bursar of The Oratory School.
Heurtley was elected as a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1936. He excavated widely in northern Greece during the 1920s and 1930s, and published his monograph, Prehistoric Macedonia, in 1939. He also excavated on the island of Ithaca between 1930 and 1932, and spent a season at Troy under Carl Blegen in 1932. He was often accompanied on his excavations by his wife, Eileen, who cooked for his excavators. He retired to her ancestral home in County Kerry in 1945, and died of cancer in 1955.