Winifred Lamb (1894–1963)

Winifred Lamb was privately educated at home and read classics at Cambridge. After graduation, during World War I, she was recruited to work in naval intelligence, where among her colleagues was the renowned archaeologist John Beazley. He encouraged her in her research interest in Greek antiquities. In 1920 she became one of the first female members of the British School at Athens, participating in the excavations at Mycenae led by Alan J. B. Wace, as well as those at Sparta and Macedonia. She served for almost four decades (1920-1958) as the Honorary Keeper of the Greek and Roman department of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. During these years, she helped to greatly enrich the collections. She was a member of the committee of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies and a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries -- some of her work was published in its Archaeologia. Winifred Lamb was the author of several important works such as Greek and Roman Bronzes (1929), which became standard reading on the topic, Excavations at Thermi in Lesbos (1936) and Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum (1936). She also was a pioneer of the excavations at Anatolia in Turkey, and worked with the BBC Turkish Services. She served as the honorary secretary of the British Institute of Archaeology in Ankara.