 Well, good afternoon, everyone. It's a pleasure to see you all here for this special event to celebrate the life of Di Morgan Evans, and I would particularly like to welcome the members of Di's family who are with us today, Sheena and Di's three daughters, Alex, Kathy and Sarah, and Alex's husband, Richard, and I know they'll be delighted to speak to you later. Di with General Secretary of the Society for 12 years from 1992 to 2004, during which time, as I'm sure you're all aware, he made a tremendous contribution to the life of the society, and we're going to hear more about this later. And he was immensely popular with staff and fellows alike, and the society is therefore absolutely delighted to have this opportunity to honour him in this way, and it was pointed out to me earlier today that this is an honour usually simply kept for past presidents. This is really just shows us how special and how important the memory of Di is to us all. But the society, of course, was just one stop in an incredibly varied and wide-ranging career, and over the course of the next hour or so, we have a series of speakers who are going to give us or try to give us as comprehensive a view as possible of Di's life and work. So I'd now like to introduce our first speaker, Chris Musson, looking forward to this, Di's student days at Cardiff and his subsequent work with the Welsh Inspectorate up to 1977, Chris. I was glad to hear plenty of laughter because there was always a lot of laughter when Di was around, sometimes quite a lot of noise as well, but we were flatmates in Cardiff a long, long time ago. This is actually a picture of, well, do you recognise him? I don't know whether I would have done, but when you look back, he's there. So we started together in Cardiff, and this is where I had my first introduction to archaeology. I was actually an architecture student, but I did a first year in the university, and one of the subjects I took would be a snip, I thought, was archaeology. And that's where I met Leslie Orcock and Elizabeth here, and that handsome young man alongside them is me. On the right, I'm going to link Jeff Wainwright with Di and John Casey to an extent, because I'm not going to be here next week. My state of rather semi undress is because I'm flying off to Armenia where when I get there at 10 o'clock in the morning tomorrow, I know it will be well between 35 degrees and 40 degrees. So I have to go with as few clothes as I possibly can because I've got a big pile to bring back. Well, let's go back and start at the beginning. Di on the left, you can see he's slightly taller. Jeff on the right. Di is already looking pretty inventive, I think, and Jeff has that sort of beady-eyed look that usually presages one of his silences at the end of which a decision would be made. Jeff's decision is not a man I suspect who lay in bed and couldn't sleep through self-doubt or whatever. They were both a bit like that, but in very different ways as you'll learn, well, as you will know from your experience, Hopham, and we'll find out as we go through the meeting. Di was, I'm told, a sometime participant in horse riding, even at the Caerphilly hunt, whether he did he actually hunted what he did, my word. On the other picture you've got John Casey. John and I and myself and Dai Lloyder and who's here as well were flatmates in Cardiff for, I don't know, a couple of years in the 1960s, and we've remained friends and colleagues ever since, really. Sadly we're getting rather fewer in number, but I suppose that's what happens over time. But we met when we were archaeology students of one ilk or another in Cardiff and really came together effectively at South Calvary Castle with the excavations of Leslie Alcock, the site called Camelot, allegedly. Here I could point it out, well I can't point it out because I haven't got a pointer. Oh yes I have. This is the trench which Dai was in charge of. It was a long trench and one of the, here it is, you can see Dai, Dai, I think that's Dai, it is Dai. Why is his trench totally deserted at the time? I don't know, but anyway. And there's Hans and me again on the right. I always wore a red hat and Leslie Alcock wore a blue hat and unbeknown to us, we were known as we went round the site as Tree to Dum and Tree to Dee. I never found out which was the Dum and which was the Dee. This is Dai again, looking a little bit glum because the Camelot connection had been supposedly the alleged connection had been played quite a lot in the press. The press was providing some of the money for the project and one of the embarrassing things that was found in Dai's trench quite earlier on was a gilt bronze letter A. Well you can imagine how that might have been played in the press. So this is Dai I think is probably trying to think up strategies for deflecting the ire of more serious archaeologists. It was a dig of its time. There were many big digs at that time and we'd really started to dig on a large scale rather than what was in his own day, Wheeler's own day. It was quite a large scale but with boxes we were now working much more with open area excavation and instead of a one or two meter trench through the rampart we would have in this case was ten meters which was considered quite big at the time. Now you might do a 90 meter rampart section I suspect. But the staffing was university students. It was done in the summer and university students as supervisors but the great number of people were real volunteers, people who may have no connection at all with archaeology and had no experience. So the result was that you had people who didn't know how to do things being supervised by people or site supervised by people who were learning to do things, who were being supervised by people who really did know how to do things. The result was that a lot of good work was done but sometimes things just got away. In the middle of July it rained for a week and what do you do with 100 people on an excavation? You finish up having to get back in there too soon and doing damage to the site. That was one of the lessons that some of us learned there. Infuse hasn't great but too many people, too little scale, too much rain or even worse none at all. You can see nothing. You can't excavate effectively if you haven't got water on the site. So it led to discussions, also the days of the burdening of rescue work and the idea that it might be possible to dig at other times than the summer. So that the idea of an idyllic life or digging on the sun drenched hill forts wasn't really borne out when some of us who'd learned from our past experience and from Calgary set up a small team of diggers who really know what they're doing. Six people who are natural diggers can do as much as 24 people supervised by three or four. So that's how we started and sometimes it was a little bit warmer than we show here but that's most of our team on that particular site. We did go and sometimes, well once, help with Geoff Rainwright who was doing a different kind of thing with a permanent digging team, digging all the time, but again with larger numbers and we would say with not quite the rather deadly seriousness that we tried to aim for in the rescue archaeology group. But we had a holiday once when we went to work with Geoff Rainwright and his group at Gussage All Saints and I'm always grateful for that because then that particular whole thing has come away. I was invited to inspect a rather comely volunteers skeleton, which I thought was a rather strange come on, but it turned out to be a dog skeleton in the bottom of a spoiled pit and not too long afterwards we were married and still are. So that's another thing I've got to be grateful for to Geoff in that case. The dye really impinged very much on the pattern of rescue archaeology in Wales in particular at that critical time. It was he who really conceived the idea of regional archaeological trust. There were many people who made a contribution to this. There were many people who contributed once the idea had taken root and what he envisaged was a uniform coverage by independent charitable trusts to cover the whole of Wales, but in broadly matching the new local authority structure that had come in at that time. So you had four trusts covering the whole of Wales. The richest being the smallest, which is Glamorgan Gwent, busiest, more possibility of external funding. The rest of us were rather more rural, but one of the advantages of the system was that it really matched the resources to and knowledge and understanding and stability to the different parts of Wales, the different kinds of archaeology that existed in those parts. And it rose really because the providing for a number of rescue excavation in Wales was getting progressively more difficult for the Ministry of Public Building and Works or whatever it was called then. So there was a need for continuity, there was a need for people who could provide their own equipment rather than having to get it from the public works. Also a need for flexibility out of financing so that you could run things on a bit. Regional responsibility in relation to the new local authority structure and a need for sites and monuments record as a contribution to some kind of development control. In those days there was no likelihood that the commission was going to be, the Royal Commission was going to be of any value to any of the trusts at Glamorgan Gwent because they were grinding slowly through the medieval castles saying nothing about the rest of Wales. So I conceived this idea with help from Richard White and other people. Richard it was who suggested that you could set up these independent organisations which would be able to receive money, take on jobs and as it would float money across the annual divide. And would still be fully under professional control because of their committees. And here we see Dai and Richard Avond. Dai was the initiator, he left for London in 1977 and Richard was the sustainer until his sad death some years later. They were steadfast friends of the archaeological trusts and have remained so, as have Cadw, the successors to the ministry. So from 1974 to 2014 the trusts have developed from initially rescue organisations to now what I suspect might have been in Dai's mind anyway regional archaeological services covering research and survey work, records and development control, aero survey and field survey, curatorial work and education and cultural identity. An association with their own area building every little piece of archaeology that they can bring in into some understanding of a region in a way which can't be done by people who for whatever reason come in and go back out again. We've survived for 40 years, all for one and one for all. We decided that we would compete with each other in putting forward ideas and proposing projects but we would act as a cooperative set up over the whole of Wales. So co-operation and competition are sort of creative tension to provide overall regional and national coverage. The regional commitment is a very real driver and flexibility of funding. So 40 years on the trusts are still there and I've got 10 free beasts that anybody would like to take away at the end. I'm certainly not going to carry them away because they're really quite heavy. One last story about Dai, a fledgling TV star because that's where we finish up at the end of this I think. This is the gate at South Cadbury where Dai was supervisor and he was required to do a minute. Leslie Olcott could be told he'd got to do a minute and he'd just start and at the end of two minutes he'd stop. Dai was a beginner in these days and he was required to walk up the entrance till he got to the Saxon gate and then he could talk about the Saxon gate. On about take six he got it all right until the last word he said instead of being ethyl he said ethyl frith or something and that resulted in one of these great explosions from Dai against himself of course. I went away at that stage because I didn't know quite what was going to happen and I never saw the programme so I don't know whether he did the take in the end. So here we are, these are from the days of Flamblevian Gardens in Cardiff, three flatmates together. Dai, I cut you off that picture, I'm sorry. This was seen when Dai's 30th anniversary party here and of course Jeff on the left at one of his many homes in Pembrokeshire. Happy times but I'm going off now to Armenia to do rock art survey and I think I would say like everybody here, thanks Dai, thanks Jeff, thanks John. They're controversialists and they were innovators and they were colleagues and friends through 50 years and I think who was it who said we're glad you stood in our way. Meaning not quite what I first thought when I heard the expression, great to have been detained by you along the way. Thank you. The two twins are just these... Chris, thank you very much indeed. Our next speaker is Chris Young who's going to work with Dai for many years in English heritage and I guess it's predecessor body too. So over to you Chris. Thank you. I'm doing this with the unaided human voice and no pictures. Partly because I don't recall doing that many sight visits with Dai. I experienced him more in the office and things associated with the office which will come to later. I'm very pleased to be invited to talk about Dai's time in the inspectorate in England and I realised at the outset that I needed help so I asked colleagues both who were in the inspectorate at the time and colleagues who might have worked with him outside and I got a very full range of response out of which certain things emerge very strongly both events and habits and characteristics. So my thanks to everybody who gave me help with this. Dai joined what was then the directorate of ancient monuments and historic buildings of the department of the environment in Fortress House in Savile Row 40 years ago and he moved on from there to here 25 years ago. So what we're talking about is a time that is a generation and more ago. And the more I worked on this presentation the more I remembered how different the world was then that it is now as we will hear. There were different habits and different expectations. I think I must first have met Dai in 1973 when I first joined the inspectorate because I came as Jeff Wainwrights assistant inspector organising rescue archaeology across the south of England. Where rescue archaeology was very much created in Jeff's image whereas in the Midlands you ended up with local authority units in the south you ended up with independent units. And we had meetings of the rescue archaeology inspectors and Dai sometimes came to those to tell us how he was doing things differently in Wales. And later I shared an office with him which two colleagues are reminding me was always smoke filled which had totally escaped both Stephen Dunmore and me. We don't remember that aspect. Not filled by smoke from by us I have to say. With him from 1977 until I changed roles at the end of 1979. Between my first meeting with him and when he came to share our office or I came to share his office in London whatsoever. I met him at the all inspectorate training gatherings which happened then for inspectors from Wales, England, Scotland and sometimes from Northern Ireland which were very good occasions for various reasons. To my subsequent regret I missed the one that Dai organised which was in North Wales. It's much remembered by colleagues in what they wrote. It had a forward looking training context which included going to exciting and unusual places for the inspectors in those days at the Dinoe Wicks Lake quarry. Industrial archaeology which wasn't what we did as much as we did later then. But what's remembered is the final reception in Carnarvon Castle. It's remembered for various reasons. It's remembered for the famous Welsh harpist who played in the middle of the castle Bailey to the assembled inspectorate. It's remembered for the amount of wine. It's remembered for Dai's anxiety at the sight of senior inspectors tottering along the ramparts clutching glasses of said wine. And it's remembered because the police came to break it up at the end of the year. Because of complaints from the residents about the noise. Dai didn't tell me that. What Dai did tell me was the story of his return to the non-conformist training college where the inspectorate were staying for the duration of this course. Because he'd had to stay behind at the castle to clear things up. And eventually he escaped and he went back to the college which was as I said Welsh and non-conformist. And as he arrived he could hear a massive amount of noise, a piano being played and raucous singing. And he was very concerned he said about the likely reaction to the college authorities. Until when he got inside he discovered the piano was being played by the college principal. So that was alright. But I think this incident picks up a number of trains in his character. He liked a good party, that puts it mildly. He had enormous affability and the ability to get on with people. He was forward looking in his professionalism and what he wanted to do. He had ability as a trainer, those of us who went through his public enquiry training courses later will remember that. He had organisational ability and he had a sense of the dramatic. All those things which combined to make him what he was. He came to London as an area inspector in the south west. Hampshire, Wiltshire, I think Dorset as well. But he carved out a role for himself in a much wider policy areas. It was a good time I think to move to the inspectorate in London. Apart from 1977 being the year in which Shampers Wine Bar actually opened in Kingley Street. They must have known Dye was coming. It was also a time of impending change in the inspectorate and what we did. Sorry, a bit of boring bureaucratic history. The 1969 Warsh report had opened up the idea that more needed to be done about archaeology in the countryside. One of the things that led ultimately to sites and monuments records which are now called historic environment records. Out of that too eventually came the idea of field monument wardens. Provide a regular presence on the ground for the inspectorate to visit sites, talk to landowners, talk to farmers and so on. Which are some of us a bit novel. Alongside that was the development of rescue archaeology and the increasing recognition of the ubiquity of what we would now call the historic environment. And Dye, as we've heard, was very much concerned with rescue archaeology in Wales, much less so in England. It was also in the lead up 1977, lead up to the 1979 Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act. Which people don't often think about now. But which revolutionised the work of the inspectorate by introducing the concept of schedule monument consent. Like a listed building for a schedule monument you had to get consent to do works to it. Before that the system had been that you gave three months notice of your intention to do works. And then it was a process of negotiation with the possibility of very, very rarely using interim preservation notice to stop somebody doing something. But that didn't happen very often because it was quite expensive in terms of the compensation which then followed. Schedule monument consent put it on a much better basis, much more like people dealing with planning. So it was like years ahead of what we had been doing. And beyond, so beyond his normal case work, which was always a punishingly heavy load, great stacks of files on his desk. Sometimes I think we competed to have the biggest files but poor gozzling won hands down. Di came second. One of my colleagues said Di had the worst handwriting in the inspectorate too in a hotly contested field. I actually doubt that because it was John Hearst who had the worst handwriting. Because he was actually given a typist to type out his memos because nobody could read what he wrote. Di, we could read but the estimate was one word in five I think but it was sufficient. So he focused on two main areas. One of these was the possibilities of schedule monument consent as a management tool. And the need to have a good information basis, hence his interest in sites and monuments records. And good training to operate the SMC system with his inevitable public enquiries. He liked public enquiries. He liked training the inspectorate to do it. By, as another colleague said, giving us slightly too small tables to put everything that he said we needed, like the water, the papers and so on, and then watch us trying to cope with this. It was all good experience. As Geoff Wainwright used to say to me now as an assistant inspector, if he said Chris I want you to do such and such it's all part of life's rich pageant, I knew it was likely to be difficult. It was when he sent me to see Brian Philp or Alec Down, Chichester, or whomever, or possibly some of the greater archaeologists in Wessex. But he and several of his colleagues have vouched for the realism of his public inspectorate training and he liked acting as an advocate in the enquiries because I think he was a lawyer, a role in which he reveled, often working with Geoff Wainwright, and sometimes to quote one colleague, actually managing to keep Geoff under control in the enquiry room. I'll give you just one example, which wasn't the case that I was involved with. It was a proposal to install a temporary test, temporary as the key point, test drilling rig for oil very close to Hadrian's wall, about 300 metres from it. SMC was refused, it led to a public enquiry in Hexham, with Dai as the council against the development and Stephen Johnson as his principal witness. The enquiry lasted three to four days and Dai rigorously cross-examined the proposers' witnesses. But his key killer point was to insist that the developer put a balloon 35 metres up on the site of the drilling rig on the day of the site visit. The inspector saw that and that was it. We won. Mind you, 10-12 years later Northumberland County Council just gave consent for somebody to do exactly the same quite close by without anybody noticing. But never mind. But his success was based not just on his advocacy, but also on his very thorough preparations for each enquiry and his training of the rest of us to prepare and deliver our evidence. The second major area of his work was rural heritage policy and there are several strands to this. He worked with other conservation agencies such as the then Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, the Nature Conservancy Council and the Countryside Commission. He looked beyond the scheduled ancient monuments on the countryside to the archaeology of the countryside as a whole and saw the need to manage archaeology as part of the landscape. One of the things he did was to develop the idea of farm management plans to protect archaeology and so on. He worked to engage farmers, he commissioned some of the earlier publications on archaeology in the countryside and how it should be managed and he also got the field monument wardens to work with farmers and to a general advocacy. He was also brilliant at working with large landowners such as the Duchy of Cornwall and the Ministry of Defence. He was many years on the Duchy of Cornwall Consultative Advisory Committee and he was summed up to one of his colleagues by his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales as having the gift of the gab, which he indeed he did. The MOD is a particular success story, especially with regard to the Source Replane training area, which is, we always say, the largest area of unimproved chalk grassland in Europe, which I think is actually true, and therefore an enormous archaeological resource. And I eventually persuaded the army they needed to take better care of the archaeology. They set up the Source Replane training area archaeological working party followed by a consultative committee in which Dye played a major part and he turned out to be very good at working with the army on a personal level. So we will be regaled with stories of how he was driven fast across Source Replane in tanks an honour not given to the rest of us very often, or in my case, at all. And there are various stories that come out of this work. After a new signing system for archaeological sites was introduced so that the army knew not to shoot at them, there was some kind of VIP visit to look at the new signage system and the first barrow they arrived at, there was the new sign and next it was a newly dug foxhole with the squaddie unit having his lunch. There's another story of a reception to mark the launch of some initiative in the Source Replane training area. This was just after the historic buildings and monuments of the British Commission for England had been set up and people hadn't really got used to the idea it was also called English Heritage. And in this big reception full of important people there was Dye and the Ada Camp comp to the garrison commander materialised offering to introduce Dye to the Brigadier and he did so saying, Brigadier I wonder if I might introduce to you David Morgan Evans from Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission who has played such a prominent role and so on. And the Brigadier responded, very glad to meet you Morgan Evans, glad you're not one of those expletives from English Heritage. Dye himself summarised his work on Source Replane as a pioneering and experimental approach towards archaeological conservation in any sort of land use and the largest scheme of archaeological land management certainly in the UK probably in England and for the type of archaeological sites involved there are a few if any comparable schemes in the world. And that too is true. Dye was also heavily involved in setting up the field monument wardens which started in 1979 I think in recruiting them and providing regular training sessions and the field monument wardens gave a great presence on the ground and he did all this in addition to the normal load of ancient monuments casework for his area and there were a number of other activities which I haven't got time for today including some international contacts. But Dye was also a people person and I want to finish by talking about that. Apart from the field monument wardens he worked closely with other inspectors and also EH administrators and at least two of my colleagues said that he actually treated his as being human beings. They didn't put it quite in those words but he looked after them, he took them travelling with him and they played an important role in his work. He believed in a way, days and informal networking the Lammet, Hinden and overnight sessions there are much mentioned and he didn't believe over much in distinctions of status and could and did go directly to the chief executive if particularly cross about something. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if he hadn't left the English heritage round about the same time that Jocelyn Stevens arrived. I think something would have happened. And it's noticeable that those who worked with him as their mentor remember him with fondness and admiration and speak of the care that he took in training them in both the large and the small aspects of working in the inspectorate. Everything from the fact that you don't need to read the whole of a file through to the coffee rotor. His personality was strong, vivid and outgoing and it was a very strong personality and very persuasive. I remember when I shared a room with him and three others that his mood when he arrived on a Monday morning could raise us to the heights or plung us to the depths of gloom for the rest of the day and he could do it all by himself depending on the mood he came in in. And another colleague who lived down the corridor used to epitomise the extremes of his moods as die boom and die doom. And apparently when it was die boom you didn't need to be told that because you could hear him up and down the corridor. He had his eccentricities or some might not regard them as eccentricities but on the anniversary of the execution of Charles I he always used to go down to the mass held in the Banqueting House in Whitehall to mark the anniversary of Charles King and Marta of the death of Charles King and Marta. He was convivial and social. Lunches in Shampas, the wine bar in Kingley Street previously mentioned were legendary and lengthy although some of us can't remember all that much about some of them. On occasion on his return he would sometimes have a brief nap. I couldn't remember him sleeping with his head on the desk. Indeed I can remember him once being woken by the cleaners. I'd gone by them but I'm told he was. But colleagues say that later he would sometimes have a brief rest under his desk where he could stretch out. But if the phone rang and was handed to him he could answer immediately and cogently and coherently and deal with the caller realising that the guy was actually lying on the floor. As I said at the beginning those were different times with other customs than we have nowadays. Another colleague summed him up for me as a wonderfully stimulating, entertaining, knowledgeable and wildly infuriating colleague and friend who brought fun, challenge, wit, conviviality and scholarly entertainment. You really couldn't ask for more. And you couldn't. But in fact the directorate and their English heritage got a lot more than that out of him. They also got someone who took advantage of the changes in legislation to strengthen greatly the protection of archaeological sites through schedule monument consent and was one of those who transformed the organisation's approach to rural heritage. In both ways he's helped to shape the approach of what is now historic England and his influence continues to the present day even though he left English heritage 25 years ago. Those of us who worked with him miss him and we should go on missing him. But he was great. Thank you. Chris, thank you very much indeed. I remember that smokefield room. There was a lot of fun to be had there, I seem to recall. You've brought back many happy memories I'm sure for me and many others here. Our next speaker is Rosemary Crump. Rosemary was the president I think for the last three years that Dai was General Secretary and I think she's going to speak to us about Dai's time as General Secretary. Thank you Rosemary. I should perhaps start this by saying thank you to Sheena who has provided all the illustrations in this talk of mine today. You'll see the reason why one of them couldn't have been from me at the end of it, I think. When I first became a fellow of the society hundreds of years ago, 1959 the secretary was a rather forbidding and rather grand person who really hardly spoke to any new people at all. He maintained the ethos of an exclusive male club and he was certainly not really given to welcoming young females from the far north. In fact, the far north as one president, Cyril Fox had said when the time of meetings was decided for the society just after the war as being 5pm the president said the present arrangement permits many fellows from the outer suburbs and home counties to come no mention of anything further away and this all changed of course with Dai but a lot had happened of course by the time Dai took over in 1992 times had changed considerably council was a more diverse place there were more welcoming home general secretaries but nevertheless the then president Barry Cunliff saw there was much in the way in the society which needed modernisation and a new look and a relatively new antiquity Dai and he was a relatively new antiquity and life had been as you've heard today in a range of public service had a range of skills and personal vigour to get things done and Dai had to come in the middle of a year he hit the ground running and he maintained this break next speed until he retired now I had a tremendous capacity to absorb new knowledge in accurate detail as the three presidents he served or who served him wood I'm sure testify and he soon had a full command of the history and the mores of the society in 1994 as part of one of the endless reviews this society subjects itself to Barry thought it needed and we all had it in those days aims and objectives and I pointed out this was already provided for us by the 1751 Royal Charter the encouragement advancement and furtherance etc I don't need to repeat it to you it's there in very large letters now as you come in but Dai kept these aims always in front of the fellowship and the council and that was very important and as Barry said in his final address in 1995 that in the three years he'd served with him new assessment had been made on the security structure the library the lecture program external contacts and the social life of the society but nevertheless it was the first occasion in 288 years that the society could boast a five year rolling budget and an estimate for a forward plan and Barry said this couldn't have been achieved without the constant support and creative impact on the super energetic general secretary many fellows I suppose who benefited from this in these three years perhaps were less interested in things like that or the later redoing of the statutes as we did what they liked was a new sense of inclusion joyful parties December miscellanies and Muldwine the acquisition of the internet which brought people together newsletters which culminated in salon and if my tenure anyway is typical we never ceased fundraising now Di had a tiny staff at that stage but they all had to play several roles two of them are here tonight I think anyway Bernard Nurse and Di both gave lectures and tours and they both brought their specialist knowledge from different departments to the development of the long overdue cataloging of our collections which of course as you all know took a long time after that and all the time they ensured the society made a mark and punched above his weight in the outside world perhaps the most creative event that I noted which exemplified our input was this input into the birthday procession of our royal patron the queen mother I was the president in Let there and I watched in awe and delight at the mace-sparing turnout that Di got together for this small group and led by Simon Jarvis we were all there yeah we were there somewhere we were certainly there Di of course as we have heard was not a paragon entirely he could be irritated by those who didn't grasp issues quickly and produced a swift response and there were those who said sometimes his responses were too swift he had a sort of short fuse occasionally and could be awakened to rage over a range of issues some of them very strange but particularly particularly he could be raged by what he considered were the academies importance as a society was not considered and for a time this was a question of the royal academies development of the courtyard there was first of all the erection of pavilions in the courtyard without planning permission which enraged I always consultation with the other occupants which enraged him more and if you wanted judicious account of this you should read Simon Jarvis's presidential address for 2000 the academy wanted the whole site clear to put up sculptures and then at the 11th hour a scheme for ffountains water jets and lighting emerged without any favourite consultation or anything to do with the conservation plan which had been developed now I consider this totally inappropriate for a small courtyard with multiple occupancy but now always all is now forgiven and forgotten but at the time as Simon said it would be idle to pretend that this evidence has not produced some occasional tension around our courtyard and a certain amount of pressure on our general secretary and president now I didn't, oh sorry it didn't quite reach war but really this is another episode but the issue of the integration of the diversity of tenure of the learned societies was to have a more serious test later than that on a lighter note the moment from the moment of his arrival Dai created an atmosphere of welcome we've heard that of course from what Chris has said earlier but new fellows were made to feel that they belonged to a lively as well as an eriodite organisation and visiting societies such as the RAI were encouraged to use our buildings and in fact our buildings became the sort of place the desirable place to meet in London at the first time and they still are of course there were memorable parties not least the celebrations in 2001 of the 250th anniversary of the gaining of our royal charter we had a summer celebration at Kelmscott where the bands played and the dancers danced and we had a more sober gathering in the library in November with lectures and a really magnificent cake I shall never forget that cake but even then we were conscious that the world was changing round us in the same address in which I mentioned the pleasure of cutting the cake and I noted the increased burden on our general secretary with new governmental demands the sort of demands we know now but for papers on health safety, risk assessment, museum status reserve status and most of all charitable status and even in my first year as president tenorial status this never let up and we know now of course how it has increased rather than decreased in the society and in 2001 to 2002 we were visited by the charity commission and that was the time when we underlined for the first time the problem of our society that it had to recognise I said in walking the tightrope between serving the interests of the fellowship and providing evidence for the greater good which earns us our charitable status I saw that and he dealt with this problem by creating significant improvements in our outreach of course outreach is now all the thing but it was still something then not only to our members which strengthened the whole body and made them feel a force but to the general public and indeed to the government as well there had been meetings before with our American fellowship where we reached out beyond the home counties and this continued but in 2002 we held our first Thursday meeting outside London in York and then many northern fellows who had never even visited Burlington House came for the first time and were even admitted for the first time and this sparked off the still flourishing York fellowship we followed this meeting in Dye's homeland of Chester in which fellows from Lancashire to Wales came and we also held meetings with the Welsh and the Scottish Antichries we did less to open to the general public than has been done in more recent regimes but we did engage directly with government on issues such as pressing for the continuation of the portable antiquity scheme which nearly founded and also for the endorsement of the United Nations Charter on Cultural Heritage and in all this we were very much aided by APAG, the All-Party Archaeology Group which Dye and Rupert Reeddale started in 2001 yet in the end the most pressing issue between us and the government was our tenure of Burlington House this this problem had rumbled on for many years and reached a sort of crescendo in 1995 but in 2002 there was a determined effort by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and in an attempt to obtain a ruling on the terms in which the learned societies occupied these quarters at Burlington House that type of course paying no rent at all eventually the near case was that the societies were no more than tenants at will or at the best licensees and so could be sacked at any time after much debate it was agreed that the five societies around the courtyard would present a joint case and the Society of Antiquities was named as the first defendant because we were the people the one left of the three who were being given by but the crown a place at Somerset House and I was the chairman of the courtyard secretaries and I think it took a great deal out of him and also Bernard Nurse who marshaled the historical evidence in an amazing way and you can read it, I think every antiquary actually ought to read archaeological journal for 2006 and see what was there Diane, Bernard and I sacked through the proceedings and it was clear that the position of each party was almost irreconcilable I would very much like to have heard a judgement I must say, but in the end the Judge Smith reserved verdict and ruled compulsory mediation what I felt about that in my anniversary address for 2004 I won't repeat it but in 2004 there was a short term settlement and this is now under review Diane left before the conclusion of the mediation but his farewell party was a short term settlement but his farewell party was a suitably memorable affair it was a convivial occasion with music and dancing some people seemed to know their steps for others it was probably more problematic I think everybody enjoyed themselves and I suppose really that is what Diane brought to the antiquaries as he brought to everything else that we have been hearing about he bought a new sense of purpose and he maintained that sense of purpose but he also brought laughter and fun and he had never ceased to maintain his academic interests and now in retirement he could return to them and develop them and return to his beloved field work which you've seen at the very beginning of Chris Musson's statement so this is what he did on the story thank you very much indeed very interesting to have a lot of what's going on at the moment in the society putting context and very aware of how much we're still working with Dye's legacy for the good our next speaker is Howard Williams from the University of Chester who's I think going to wind back initially to say something about Dye's early life and then go to the other end and say something about Dye's retirement interests I'll let the images sink in for a second and again I thank Sheena for some of these images and to various other colleagues and also for DVDs which have been trawling through and extracting some stills from to capture some moments of his television so I feel very privileged and also I feel burdened to present here today because I am not simply representing myself on a personal and professional level so all my academic colleagues and also somewhere in the region of six to seven years of University of Chester students who have been in touch with me over recent months with stories and moments of being taught by Dye at Chester and so I'm taking on those variety of different perspectives representing in this talk and I'm wearing my University of Chester tie not out of some slavish affinity to my academic institution but because you'll see that tie Dye introduced me to this idea why haven't you got a tie too Howard? Oh right yeah University tie I'll get one of those that comes in you'll see in a little while I hope in some of my images so it's for me to talk about Dye and Chester when I got to Chester in 2008 I'd come across this Dye Morgan Evans character I've seen him give a couple of presentations I've met him a couple of times briefly and I saw as one of the many archaeological evidence named on various publications but I hadn't quite put a finger on what this guy was like because here I was coming to a new academic job my fourth and there was this visiting professor and I thought oh yeah I've seen visiting professors on lists of websites for various other more established universities they won't be here they won't be doing anything they'll just be names they'll be getting library access and maybe turning up for a drink every now and again but really they won't be any connection and then it quickly dawned on me that Dye wasn't doing that he was in a contributing to a department of history and archaeology with only two archaeologists when I got there the first question to the students to me was when are you leaving for Durham and he wanted to make a contribution not only because it was Chester and his home city but also because I think he felt he could make a contribution at Chester and he did so I don't want to dwell too much on what Dye was like as a person of which many people here and afterwards we can reflect on I want to talk about what he did for us so first of all he taught he taught on a third year module archaeology and contemporary society a whole range of subjects and afterwards I sat in on a few of these lectures as a review you know to sit in on a teaching review and to praise each other's lectures and I was astounded by what I heard about the nanorobots of the future of archaeology and they probably are I learnt about media and archaeology and its interactions and its complexities and I learnt about the politics of archaeology he taught students straight from his own experience of many years and his connection with Chester goes way back and Sheen has provided these images for me and there's a long tedious debate about exactly where this dig is I think it's in Chester it is an early excavation I think it's a bit of Roman wall there but I'm still in discussions with different people about exactly who the archaeologist is on the right and which exact year it is but I won't bore you with that but here we are, this is to make the point that the links to Chester go way back but that wasn't the only reason as I said that Dai wanted to be involved at Chester it was his affinity for the city and we discussed that after his lectures at many soup and sandwiches it had his tea rooms by the Northgate but also because he wanted to do more than teach he wanted to initiate new archaeological research with me, which was a great honour but also rather nerve wracking this is us in 2008 there's Dr Megan Gondek now Professor Megan Gondek and she's our head of department there's a certain Dr David Pets Susan Young's and in the very far distance are Alex Turner and Sarah Semple and there's Dai pointing at a monument that in the picture on the left he is measuring with Nancy this is the pillar of Elysig and this is a very strange and unique monument and he was very keen to mobilise support to get that scheduled monument consent to do work here for the first time in a modern sense and so Dai had this idea and he instigated more than he brought to Chester more than teaching with Nancy Edwards who's finishing her corpus of early medieval stone sculpture and we should do some work and persuade Cadu a certain Charneries and various other individuals who you may know to let us do work here to do a new excavation and this all began in 2008 and it led on to student training, research excavations and community engagement project Elysig and there's various action shots from the first season showing a tour around Valley Cruces Abbey striding around, excavating he lifted a lot of turf and he did a lot of saving for us and also he came back briefly on the 2011 season to see how we were getting on I will say that it was it was a brilliant project in many ways and a challenging one, it wasn't a big excavation but it was challenging in many ways in terms of negotiation and working in a very precarious relationship with a farmer and on a scheduled monument and I have to say that I missed I severely in 2011 and 2012 not simply because I missed being able to talk to him and getting his guidance but also the power balance had shifted towards banger and of course but also in an important sense I wanted him to be there because this was the project that I had wanted to really drive forward and he had wanted to see the results from now with writing up the monograph for this now, Gary Nancy and myself and we will of course be dedicating the final work to die but I also want to reflect with you a moment on the future of this monument this 9th century fragment across slab and how we were excavating the mound which proved we found evidence it was early bronze age as many suspected but already before our monograph has come out and not really with our consultation various heritage interpretations have already transpired and indeed I wonder what die would make of this the new display of 2015, Game of Crowns in the Eagle Tower at Canavon that we heard about before where the pillar of Elysig or at least a version of it created by artist Aaron Watson who has now materialised in a location where it is more visible than the pillar itself it's a disturbing and I think it would challenge him even his most patriotic Welsh moment to be fully reconciled with this narrative spun around a monument he was keen to investigate and as of earlier this year likewise heritage boards have appeared for the first time since in this century at least in a long time at the pillar itself so I would say that die's idea of fieldwork has already led to new conservation of the monument and new interpretation of the monument not necessarily in perhaps my the way I would have done it and I certainly think die if he was still here would have some very strong words about this but notwithstanding it's part of the legacy that he set up and this is a monument that's like a sleeping giant in terms of politics but it does occasionally get mobilised this is 2015 election general election with boards next to it and somebody called Dymorgan Evans put that flag up in 2010 it was there for a few days to give a bit of a patriotic tinge to the monument but I think this is going to be an interesting monument for north Wales and for Wales and western Britain more generally to give debates about the period and the subsequent biography of this monument and die is fully instrumental in that developing academic and public engagement debate now there are many aspects to die's retirement years that I could talk about or his nearing retirement years I could talk about and I think the second half of my talk here I really just want to reflect on one of them this is the two rebuilding or recreation experimental archaeology projects of creating Roman buildings and I confess that we're all niche scholars, we all have our things that interest us and for me this is even though it's the Roman period and only a few centuries before my interests really kickstart it really doesn't grab me and TV archaeology isn't something I've indulged in much and so when I talked to Di when the second of these projects was coming about and he was designing this Rome wasn't built in a day I must confess I had very little to go other than, oh that's interesting it didn't grab me but I've just been rewatching these programs I'm taken by them and I think they are distinctive and have a legacy and I just want to reflect on them briefly rebuilding the past at Butser Ancient Farm a fascinating program to rewatch I don't know how many of you here have seen the whole thing or part of it or remember part of it but it's a bizarre and rather disturbing thing to watch of a reality TV program trying to do experimental archaeology where Di's role really comes in on episode four with a somewhat staged but genuine in terms of how the project was progressing crisis moment where the villa was simply not going to be built and Di does come in and redirect it and re-establish a program of works to lead it to completion and so here we have four shots from the nearing the end of the building project showing Di and Christine and various other visiting experts casting their views over this first reconstruction of a Roman villa using traditional methods since the Roman period rather than gas on about it a bit more I'd like to show you a bit of a clip now video technology may not work but let's give this a go because I think this sums up anything about this project it is brilliant and our real thanks have got to go to those who put the building up the villa I thought looked absolutely wonderful all the statues outside the box hedging it was just amazing what we managed to achieve between us at the end of it I feel I've learnt a lot but not so much as I'd ever want to do it again in my archaeological career I'd certainly say it's one of my high points it's always difficult to measure these things absolutely it was an unforgettable experience no it is an unforgettable experience because it's still there and going on that's the great thing about this compared to some other archaeological programs we've actually left something there which is almost permanent which will be a great benefit for a very long time it took 18 months 500,000 flints 4,500 roof tiles 15,000 mosaic cubes and the marriages, jobs and dedication of a heroic team in October 2003 Britain's first authentic Roman villa in a millennium and a half was finally completed the past was rebuilt and now stands for the future to complement that I'd like to finish by reflecting on the second of these programs now at the time when I actually didn't realise in the last of the programs I even appear there's me coming along with my students to do some painting at the very end where we've got a very colourful reception by the celebrity builders which I shall not repeat to this audience but my students took it on the chin and ignored them and got on and did the thing that Diw wanted us to do but it was a program it was one of those TV programs I must have been at the time thinking this is just cringy reality stuff but actually rewatching it I realised how much that was only a small fragment there was a lot of genuine experimentation going on there's a lot of genuine research and in particular of course Di's design Di brought to these projects his humour and I felt his vision and those things the entertainment and the archaeological credibility I think do shine through and I do want to reflect on that by showing you two more video clips the first one is the end clip from the sixth episode and then I want to go back and show you briefly Di's reaction when he sees whether this is staged or not I don't think it matters but his reaction to the television camera he first sees the roof going on the structure he designed these aren't very long he's just finished to show visitors the diversity of building methods and materials used in the villa's construction the builders have used more than 30 tons of oak 150 tons of hand cut sandstone 3,000 handmade roof tiles and 36 tons of lime plaster it even has a winged phallus to bring the building good fortune just as it's Roman counterpart had 1600 years 3. Gweithio'r byd. I have arrived on site and for the first time can see the true scale of the villa he designed. Oh, quite emotional, quite emotional. If you design something and you can sort of sketch it out on paper, you have it worked up, you argue about it, you move it around, you have to alter it and just try to do something that works. But when you actually see it coming into the feeling, that's good. So, to conclude, you've heard a lot about Dany's personality, his character, his archaeological skills, his vision. For Chester, on his retirement he brought a lot of those things to us, to my students, to my colleagues, to me. So, yeah, it was good. Howard, thank you very much for taking us from that journey with the small boy in short trousers to the videos at the end. That was great. Our final contribution is from Adrian James, who was a society's assistant librarian for a very long time, 1980 to 2016. So he had lots of opportunities to work with Dye and he's going to summarise that, I think, in verse. When I composed these lines, I seemed to hear the voice of Dye resounding in my ear. It said, now Adrian, you know the drill, stand up and sock it to them. So I will. We must be candid. There were not a few panjandrums of the senior fellows who, after the careful council had conferred and the white smoke arose, were overheard to mutter somewhat anxiously good heavens. It seems they've gone for David Morgan Evans. Since no one knew just quite what to expect when Dye was General Secretary-elect, of one thing we were certain anyhow, the place would see some alterations now. Because, at interview, when Dye was asked what his priority, if he were tasked to manage the society would be, he answered, with a little glint of glee, I think the improvement of its social life. To this we'd yield like butter to the knife. When first the darkling hall of sal.org Dye entered, he pronounced the place a morg. As General Secretary, he moved to act restoring to these rooms the life they lacked. The Vinus bottle and the party round annulled the torpor with a jockened sound. Not for an age, not since Dye's namesake John was president, had we so undergone re-education in the genial ways of social seminars and sweet soirees. Though pastime with good company and drinking were more Dye's line than bump or blue sky's thinking, plans of campaign were eagerly unfurled and windows opened on the wider world. The general public, yes, the Hoy Ploy approached these portals to perceive with joy prince and engravings, visages of kings and lots of really nice old books and things. As partners in our purpose they were viewed instead of peasants ignorant and rude. Although in fairness I should add that Hugh Chapman, Dye's predecessor, saw this too. Glasnost and Perestroika at that time were bandwagons on which Hugh had us climb. Dye's earlier career was partly spent in monstering a prim establishment and there were those who thought his Celtic fringe affinities betrayed a loosened hinge. But people pompous, proud and self-important, Dye strongly felt were being what they oughtn't. He craved the clanger of Witt's fiery forge and wasn't solemn like our young prince George. Then laterally and somewhat unexpectedly for one who loved the 18th century, Dye did diversity and dared derision by being visible on television. Replete with Roman Villa where his friends are tired themselves in togas at weekends. As a presenter, who was Dye most like? Not barking mad, com Dr Magnus Pike. My TV references are to a man historical, nay antiquarian. Neither seniorially suave as wheeler, nor yet the donish and discerning dealer in ancient cultures, studiously aloof like Kenneth Clark. Rather, Dye was proud that scientific thought could be embraced with human feeling by a man of taste. That progress in a science comes by arts, we welcome knowledge foremost in our hearts. Impassioned, generous, humorous on the whole, a life affirming, large and liberal soul, readily touched and quickly moved to tears, a watchful ward of burgeoning careers, Dye's range of human sympathies was wide and paid no heed to any class divide. But certainly, the ill-bred Philistine incurred his wrath. In 1999, there opened at the Royal Academy its Monet in the 20th century, and Dye, for one, the RA, failed to please by throwing up some PVC marquees without planning permission. Jocelyn Stevens, who happened to be looking in just as these edifices rose, walked out ffuming at such white monsters all about. Dye had a Celtic temper. When his ire was roused, it burned, a fast and kindling fire, and institutional arrogance he hated. Accordingly, the RA was berated. Westminster Council's planners that same day received a note exhorting them to stay the Royal Academy's too hasty hand by issuing an instant countermand. Though the marquees were ready for the town, the planners met and turned to the whole scheme down. Dye's triumph made the evening press take note to whom he cackled, I don't like to gloat but I'm gloating. The Philistines are smitten. We gratefully remember Dye for which an ability to tell hilarious stories turned routine tea breaks into social glories. He'd met in his professional capacity odd types whom he'd recall with fine locacity. Some army personnel he'd known seemed one with Dr Strangelove's General Terginson in almost superhuman daltishness. Dye used to tell us about one fine mess, his horrifying near catastrophe, when in an army truck on Salisbury plain unexpectedly huge guns began to pound the track down which the vehicle ran. The army major he was driven by declared, a soldier's not afraid to die. To which our Dye, who plainly gave a dam, squeaked, well I'm not a soldier and I am. Of all Dye's many kindnesses to staff the greatest was he often made us laugh. Some of us here are veterans I believe of Dye's extraordinary millennium eve. For several months a wild grande peur had spread throughout the land an atavistic dread that all computers on millennium morn would cease to work and what rough beast be born. Dye placed a banquet in the council room and in we came to face the hour of doom. Of meat there was no want, of wine no drowth, one reveler stuffed a trout's head in his mouth. Then after dinner Dye released our crowd onto the roof when such things were allowed. Splittering fireworks burst upon the night, above roared concord at no greater height. Computers glowed, yes they were doing fine, the world was saved, we went and drank more wine. Just once was such a social night embattled, just once was Dye a little more than rattled. The summer wine cup, which we staff had fixed down in the kitchen, boasted quanthro mixed with cumquats, plus substantial quantities of soda but for which the potion is intoxicating to a high degree. Preparing this was in the agency of a staff member ungain sayable in Vintner's law and on her shoulders fell the geoconcocting of our special broom. That something was a miss we shortly knew. Proceedings started promptly with the normal miscellany of papers and the formal transactions being closed with thanks returned in favour of their wine cups, guests adjourned. These gentile fixtures in the month of June are placid as a rule but very soon fellows with signs of tiredness or emotion or curious defects in locomotion began to be in startling evidence. And some there were who seemed deprived of sense assuming a position when alone which probably may be described as prone. While this was happening in the entrance hall a visit to the kitchen revealed all. Our bar made for the night whose tastes were formed in Soho in the 50s had not warmed to adding soda, deeming such dilution fitter for liquids destined for ablution. Die remonstrated but the brusque response fellows can't hold their drink die came at once. The quantro proved a too too heady mix now pims removes the office politics. Undoubtedly it would be very wrong to leave a false impression. Wine and song and what goes with them played the smallest part in ways in which die took this place to heart. Work was as it remains laborious and stuff we felt more was required of us with issues of our tenancy here looming and soon becoming ever more consuming. Troubles popped up too numerous to control life seemed a gruesome game of whack-a-mole. When die was under some undue duress physical symptoms flashed of mounting stress the premonitory signs to recognize were sudden facial tics fast blinking eyes the index finger that so often poked dies spectacles whenever something stoked a smoldering indignation. But these niggles could soon subside in mockery and giggles. No man was less disposed to bear a grudge. No man should judge him as he would not judge. He might bestride the pulpit but the pew was where he sat with people whom he knew. Supportive of the staff and always just die offered loyalty. He had our trust. God said and rightly blessed are the pure in heart amongst whom dies place is secure. Ours is no time and die was not the man to be a septuagenarian assistant secretary although Carlisle and Philip Corder by a country mile retained the post long past retirement age. But die a youthful 60 quit the stage. To publish an appropriate ovation we held a party on this great occasion. Even the library was cleared and for one single night became a disco floor which gallantly if groaningly confessed the Terpsigorian prowess of each guest. The vast and hallowed carpet offered traction to steps for I can't get no satisfaction. Nor was this all of which these vaults could brag. Whenever that grim lyric what a drag it is getting old was hollered out or brooted the sentiment could not but be confuted. With die the dance floor dervish wild with wit leading our feet we made a night of it. With die in charge we staff had to the end a gracious colleague and a loyal friend. This institution by his wise election gained optimistic outward bound direction. We all miss die. I miss his sense of fun. He's missed in many ways but everyone whose life he took absorbing notice of remembers him with laughter and with love. Well what can we say after that's what a turd of force. It was quite wonderful. I think we need to discuss publication so we can all savor it. Before we finish I know that she now I think you'd like to say a few words. Well on behalf of myself and dies family I'd like to thank all of today's speakers. They're all extremely busy people but they've given unslintingly of their time and energy to provide these knowledgeable witty and above all kind and generous accounts of dies career. I know they did it for die but we too are hugely grateful to them. We're also grateful to Jill and the offices and fellows of the society for their generous hospitality today and their staff for so much of the background work which has gone into organizing this event. Behind the scenes Stephen Dunmore has been key to the planning and Howard Williams has done a brilliant coordination job. I was very lucky in it finding exactly the right profession for him and in the friends and colleagues he worked with. He drew strengths from them throughout his career including through the controversy and argument which he greatly enjoyed stirring up. We and his family have also felt the warmth of your support during his illness and in the last six months and we give you our heartfelt thanks. Diolch yn fawr. Thank you Sheena. Well as we've heard as well as being admired for his remarkable professional skill and achievements dies conviviality and sense of fun were also a very important part of who he was so I feel quite certain that he would expect us to continue these celebrations in suitable style and appropriate arrangements have been made ladies and gentlemen outside so do please go and enjoy yourselves and do talk to Sheena and all the family.