Dorothy Liddell

Born Dorothy Mary Liddell to Emily Catherine Berry and her husband John Liddell at Benwell, England in 1890. She was one of six children born to the couple. Her father was a prosperous director of the North British and Mercantile Insurance Company and a Justice of the Peace first for Northumberland and later for Basingstoke. There were three boys and three girls in the family. The family moved several times and by 1898 were living in Prudhoe Hall. In 1904 the family moved to Sydmonton Cork near Newbury and then later in 1908 to Sherfield Manor, Basingstoke. The family were philanthropic and interested in their community where ever they lived. They were a very close knit family. Liddell was known as Dolly and Tabitha to her family. Tabitha was a character she had performed to entertain the convalescent soldiers who stayed in Sherfield Manor when it was used as a hospital during the First World War. Liddell was a nurse in the hospital and after the death of her brother Aidan, a Victoria Cross recipient, and the closure of the hospital she joined the red cross in La Panne and worked there until the end of the war. She was awarded a M.B.E. for her service.{{cite book|author=Peter Daybell|title=With a Smile and a Wave|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DgPSAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA16|date=1 January 2005|publisher=Pen and Sword|isbn=978-1-4738-2083-8|pages=16–}}{{Lives of WWI |id= 5145091 | name= Dorothy M Liddell }}

Liddell was raised with the typical education of the time, taught by governesses and tutors. She was able to perform well on the violin and was a debutante, presented at Court. Although she was a noted archaeologist, she had been unable to get a formal education in archaeology. However she went on to become a significant figure in British archaeology. She worked for the 1925-1929 Windmill Hill, Avebury excavations where she was the first to recognise the use of bird bones to decorate Neolithic pottery. This site had a significant influence on the perception of Neolithic life. Liddell discovered the young Leakey and worked with her initially for three summers and later trained her for four years. Together they worked on the Hembury site in Devon, where Liddell uncovered a framed entrance which led to an enclosure which had been destroyed by fire. She also discovered more pottery matching other locations like Fort Harrouard in France and other Iron Age sites. Her work is still cited in other papers about these.{{cite journal |last1=Morris |first1=Michael |title=An Iron Age and Romano-British site at Choseley Farm, Odiham: the excavations of Dorothy Liddell, 1937|journal=Proc. Hampsh. Field Club Archaeol. Soc. |date=1986 |volume=42 |pages=89–108 |url=http://www.hantsfieldclub.org.uk/publications/hampshirestudies/digital/1980s/vol42/Morris.pdf}}{{cite web|url=https://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=%22dorothy+liddell%22|title=Papers in JSTOR}}{{cite journal|author=Todd, Malcolm|title= Roman Military Occupation at Hembury (Devon). |journal=Britannia|volume=38|date= 2007|pages=107–123|jstor= 30030570 |doi= 10.3815/000000007784016511 |s2cid= 162199199 }}{{cite web |title=Dorothy Liddell {{!}} TrowelBlazers |url=https://trowelblazers.com/dorothy-liddell/ |website=trowelblazers.com|date=23 December 2016 }}{{cite web |last1=Guerra |first1=Tiffany |title=Year of Women in History: Mary Leakey, Archaeologist and Anthropologist |url=https://yearofwomenshistory.blogspot.com/2016/05/mary-leakey-archaeologist-and.html |website=Year of Women in History |date=10 May 2016}}{{cite web |title=Breaking ground: Female archaeologists at Avebury |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/avebury/features/breaking-ground-female-archaeologists-at-avebury |website=National Trust |language=en}}{{cite web |title=Hampshire Archaeology |url=https://hampshirearchaeology.wordpress.com/ |website=Hampshire Archaeology}}{{cite web |title=Heritage Gateway - Results |url=http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MDV5327&resourceID=104 |website=www.heritagegateway.org.uk}}{{cite book|author1=T.D. Kendrick|author2=C.F.C. Hawkes|title=Archaeology in England and Wales 1914 - 1931|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oilKDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT69|date=29 January 2018|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-315-51543-4|pages=69–}}{{cite book|author=British Academy|title=2000 Lectures and Memoirs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RZ7p__t5l_QC&pg=PA597|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-726259-7|pages=597–}}{{cite journal |last1=Todd |first1=Malcolm |title=Roman Military Occupation at Hembury (Devon) |journal=Britannia |date=2007 |volume=38 |pages=107–123 |doi=10.3815/000000007784016511 |s2cid=162199199 |language=en |issn=1753-5352}}{{cite web |title=Hembury Fort - Honiton, Devon - Iron Age multivallate hillfort, Neolithic causeway and Roman settlement |url=http://www.hemburyfort.co.uk/ |website=www.hemburyfort.co.uk}}{{cite journal |url=http://www.hantsfieldclub.org.uk/publications/hampshirestudies/digital/1930s/vol12/Other_material_pt3.pdf|title=Other material |journal=Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club & Archaeological Society |volume=12 |issue=3 }}{{cite book|author=Malcolm Todd|title=The South West to 1000 AD|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yfPgAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA69|date=23 June 2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-87164-4|pages=69–}}{{Excessive citations inline

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Alexander Keiller gave a speech at the opening of the Alexander Keiller Museum in Avebury shortly after Liddell's death, where he thanked her and spoke of the Museum as a tribute to her work. Liddell died prematurely and was buried with her parents and brother near the Church of the Holy Ghost in Basingstoke.

• Notes on two excavations in Hampshire, 1931
• Report on the excavations at Hembury Fort, Devon 1930-1935, 1935

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Category:1890 births

Category:1938 deaths

Category:British women in World War I

Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire

Category:British women archaeologists

Category:20th-century British non-fiction writers

Category:20th-century British women writers

Category:20th-century British archaeologists