Richard MacGillivray Dawkins

Not to be confused with Richard Dawkins.

Richard MacGillivray Dawkins
Born
Died
Alma mater
Occupation
Employer
Religion
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Awards

Richard MacGillivray Dawkins FBA (24 October 1871 – 4 May 1955) was a British archaeologist. He was associated with the British School at Athens, of which he was Director between 1906 and 1913.

Early life

He was the son of Rear-Admiral Richard Dawkins of Stoke Gabriel and his wife Mary Louisa McGillivray, only surviving daughter of Simon McGillivray. He was educated at Marlborough College and at King's College, London where he trained as an electrical engineer.

Academic career

He took part in the dig at Palékastro, and the survey of Lakonia (see Artemis Orthia and Menelaion, Sparta); also at Rhitsona. He undertook linguistic fieldwork in Cappadocia from 1909 to 1911, which resulted in a basic work on Cappadocian Greek. Then he led a dig at Filakopí from 1911.

He was a fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and later the first Bywater and Sotheby Professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. Between 1928 and 1930 Dawkins served as President of the Folklore Society, and in his later life published three considerable collections of Greek folk tales.

In 1907, he inherited the Plas Dulas estate from a first cousin. There he experimented with plant importation and cultivation. He also displayed archaeological antiquities within the garden.

Works

• Modern Greek in Asia Minor (1916)
• The sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta (1929)
• The Cypriot Chronicle of Makhairas (1932)
• The Monks of Athos (1936)
• Forty-five Stories from the Dodecanese (1950)
• Arabian Nights
• Norman Douglas (1933, revised 1952)
• Modern Greek Folktales (1953)
• More Greek Folktales (1955)
• More stories from the Arabian Nights (1957)

References and sources

References

Sources

• R. J. H. Jenkins, Richard MacGillivray Dawkins, 1871-1955, Proceedings of the British Academy, 41 (1955), 373-88.