Arkell , Anthony John , 1898-1980 , colonial administrator and archaeologist

Arkell , Anthony John , 1898-1980 , colonial administrator and archaeologist

Anthony John Arkell was born on 29 July 1898. Educated at Bradfield College and Queen's College, Oxford he was a member of the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War and received a military cross in 1918. In 1920 he joined the Sudan Political Service serving from 1921-1924 as Assistant District Commissioner for Darfur Province and then becoming acting Resident at Dar Masalit (1925-1926). He followed this with a period as District Commissioner for Kosti (White Nile Province) from 1926-1929 and then for Sennar (Blue Nile Province) from 1929-1932. In 1928 he married Dorothy Davidson (d. 1945) and was also awarded an MBE. He received the Order of the Nile (Fourth Class) in 1931. He was Deputy Governor for Darfur from 1932-1937. Arkell worked for the Sudanese Government as Commissioner for Archaeology and Anthropology from 1938-1948 as well as being the Chief Transport Officer 1940-1944 and Editor of Sudan Notes and Records, 1945-1948.

From 1948-1953, Arkell was a lecturer in Egyptology at University College, London whilst remaining Archaeological Adviser to the Sudanese Government. In 1950 he married his second wife, Joan Burnell. He was appointed Reader in Egyptian Archaeology in 1953 and held this post as well as that of Curator of the Flinders Petrie Collection of Egyptian Antiquities at University College, London until his retirement in 1963. Following his retirement Arkell entered the Church, becoming Vicar of Cuddington with Dinton from 1963 until 1971. He died on 26 Feb 1980.

Arkell's publications include Early Khartoum (1949); The Old Stone Age in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1949); Shaheinab (1953); History of Sudan from Early Times to 1821 (1955; 2nd. ed. 1961); Wanyanga (1964); and The Prehistory of the Nile Valley (1975).