Christ's Egyptology
professor harry smith

Prof. Harry Smith

Biography

Years at Christ’s: 

  • 1950-1955 (as Lady Wallis Budge Scholar) 
  • 1956-1960 (as Lady Wallis Budge Junior Research Fellow)
  • 1960-1963 (as Fellow)

Born in 1928, Harry Smith attended Merchant Taylors’ School from 1940 through to 1946. He obtained six months’ deferment from National Service in order to sit the Open Scholarship examinations in Classics to Christ’s College, Cambridge. Following his period of National Service, he went up to Cambridge in September 1949, where Prof. Stephen Glanville became a close friend and mentor. Changing from Classics to Oriental Studies, Harry read Egyptology, Coptic and Arabic, and graduated with a Starred First Class Degree in 1953. 

Following his graduation, Harry visited Egypt, spending four weeks in Luxor copying inscriptions for the Theban Tombs Project, and then working with Prof. W. B. Emery in the Archaic Necropolis at North Saqqara. On his return to Cambridge, he began studying Demotic with Stephen Glanville, and, in September 1954, was appointed Assistant Lecturer in Egyptology in the Faculty of Oriental Studies. 

In January 1956 Harry was elected as Lady Wallis Budge Research Fellow at Christ’s College. A few months later, in April 1956, Glanville died unexpectedly, leaving the Cambridge Egyptological Department without a head. J. M. Plumley was appointed as Professor of Egyptology in 1957, and in 1959 Harry was promoted from Assistant Lecturer to Full Lecturer. 

In 1959-1960 Harry obtained leave to do fieldwork. To gain experience in settlement archaeology, he worked first with Prof. Seton Lloyd at Beycesultan on the Cappadocian Plateau in Turkey. From there he travelled to Sudanese Nubia to work with Prof. W. B. Emery on the Egypt Exploration Society’s excavations at Buhen. Following this, he went to north Iraq to work with Prof. David Oates at Nimrud.  While working at Buhen, Prof. Emery invited him to be Field Director of the Archaeological Survey of Egyptian Nubia, one of three projects undertaken by the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) as part of the UNESCO campaign to rescue and record the monuments of Nubia prior to the construction of the High Dam at Aswan. The survey was undertaken during two seasons in 1961. 

In 1961 Harry was elected as a Full Fellow of Christ’s College, where he acted as temporary tutor from 1961 to 1963. In autumn 1963 he was appointed Reader in Egyptology at University College London (UCL), with responsibility for the Petrie Museum there. He remained at UCL for the rest of his career. 

From 1963 to 1970, Harry worked for the EES in Sudanese Nubia as Field Director at Buhen and Kor, and as Principal Epigraphist and Site Supervisor to Prof. Emery at the site of the Sacred Animal Necropolis (SAN) at North Saqqara. In 1970 he was elected to the Edwards Chair of Egyptology at UCL on Emery’s retirement from it. As well as being Head of Department of Egyptology at UCL, he served as a member of the Board of Studies of Archaeology and Oriental Languages and Literatures, and as a member of the Committee of Management at the Institute of Archaeology. 

In March 1971 Prof. Emery died suddenly and unexpectedly in Egypt. Harry was appointed by the EES as Field and General Director at the SAN, and undertook study seasons and further excavations there between 1971 and 1976, when it was decided that fieldwork at the site should cease. In 1976 he was a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Harvard, Mass., USA. In the same year, he started the Temple-Town Survey at Saqqara for the EES, and from 1977 to 1981 excavated at the Anubieion. In 1981 he became a Corresponding Member of the Deutsches Archaologisches Institut. From 1981 he acted as Field and General Director of the Archaeological Survey of Memphis for the EES. In 1983 he became a Member of the Board of Management at the Institute of Classical Studies, London University, and in 1984 was a Visiting Lecturer at the College de France, Paris. In 1985 he became a Fellow of the British Academy, and in 1987 was awarded the D. Lit., London. 

In 1988 Harry retired from excavation work, leaving the Memphis project in the capable hands of Dr. David Jeffreys and Dr. Lisa Giddy. Following his retirement from UCL, he continued to teach part-time on an honorary basis, and in 1993 was a Visiting Lecturer at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. From 1994 onwards, he turned his attention to the publication of the full archaeological reports on the SAN and the Demotic documents recovered from that site. 

Harry passed away on 8th September 2024 at the age of 96 and will be greatly missed both by Christ's College and the wider Egyptology community.

  • Archaeological Publications
  • Philological Publications
  • Historical and General Publications
  • Obituaries Publications
  • Archaeological Joint Publications
  • Philological Joint Publications