Aileen Fox

The daughter of a solicitor, she was educated at Chinthurst School in Surrey, and later at Downe House School in Kent. She remained at the school after it moved to Berkshire, under the headship of Olive Willis, and then went on to read English at Newnham College, Cambridge.[2][3][4] After her graduation in 1929, she worked as a volunteer on the excavation of Richborough, Kent, under J. P. Bushe-Fox.[4] She spent the following winter at the British School at Rome, before returning to Richborough.[5] In 1932 she excavated at Hembury hillfort, Devon and Meon Hill, Hampshire.[5]

In 1933 she married Cyril Fox, the director of the National Museum of Wales, with whom she had three sons. The Foxes excavated prehistoric and Roman sites throughout the UK, although Fox continued to lead her own excavations, for instance at the Roman legionary fortress at Isca Augusta (Caerleon, Wales) in 1939.[6] Fox lectured at the University College, Cardiff, from 1940 to 1945.[5] Her most notable achievement consisted of three seasons of excavation at Roman Exeter, following damage from World War II.[7] After these, she took up a lectureship at the University College of the South West of England at Exeter in 1947, and continued there until her retirement in 1971.[5] From the late 1940s onward, she undertook key excavations in Southwest England, shedding new light on prehistoric occupation of Dartmoor, Iron Age hillforts in the region, and the Roman military presence in Cornwall.[8]

In 1973, Fox became a visiting lecturer at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. From 1974 to 1976, she was Acting Archaeologist at the Auckland Museum. She remained in New Zealand for 10 years, active in teaching, research, publishing and involvement with organizations such as the New Zealand Archaeological Association, and the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (now Heritage New Zealand).[9] Her interest in hill forts led to site recording in Auckland, Northland and Hawkes Bay, and excavation of a pā site at Te Awanga in 1974–1975.[9][10] She also researched Māori carving, and burial chests in particular.[9][11]

In 1965, she was a founding member of the Hillforts Study Group, alongside Christopher Hawkes and others.[12] In the late 1960s, Fox played a key role in establishing the Exeter Archaeological Field Unit. She served as the president of the Devon Archaeological Society (1963–1964) and as a vice-president of the Council for British Archaeology.[8] She believed in nurturing archaeological interest in young people. She produced her book Roman Britain in collaboration with the artist Alan Sorrell, whom she had met many years earlier at the British School at Rome. With her husband's knighthood in 1935, she became known as Lady Fox.

In 1944, Fox was elected to a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.[8] In 1985 she was awarded an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Exeter [8] and in 1998 honorary membership of the Prehistoric Society.[8]

• Fox, Aileen (1961). Roman Britain. London: Lutterworth Press. ISBN 9780718808006. (Drawings by Alan Sorrell.)
• Fox, Aileen (1948). "The Early Plan and Town Houses of Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum)". Antiquity. 22 (88): 172–178. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00019785.
• Fox, Aileen (1952). Roman Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum): excavations in the war-damaged areas, 1945–1947. Manchester: Published for the University College of the South-West of England by Manchester University Press.
• Fox, Aileen (1955). "Celtic fields and farms on Dartmoor, in the light of recent excavations at Kestor". Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 20: 87–102. doi:10.1017/s0079497x00017795.
• Fox, Aileen (1955). "Some evidence for a Dark Age trading site at Bantham, near Thurlestone, South Devon". The Antiquaries Journal. 35 (1–2): 55–67. doi:10.1017/s0003581500048617.
• Fox, Aileen (1974). "Prehistoric Maori storage pits: problems in interpretation". Journal of the Polynesian Society. 83 (2): 141–154.
• Fox, Aileen (1976). Prehistoric Maori Fortifications in the North Island of New Zealand. Auckland: Longman Paul. Monograph No. 6 of the New Zealand Archaeological Association.
• Fox, Aileen (1980). "A new look at Maori carved burial chests". Antiquity. 54 (210): 7–14. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00042782.