John Devitt Stringfellow Pendlebury (12 October 1904
– 22 May 1941) was a British archaeologist who worked for British intelligence during World War II. He died
during the Battle of Crete.
Early life
John Pendlebury was born in London, the eldest son of Herbert S Pendlebury and Lilian D Devitt. After a private education at
Winchester College (1918-1923), he obtained scholarships to Pembroke College, Cambridge University
where he was awarded a 1st class Classical Tripos in 1927. Whilst there he also shone
as a sportsman, an athletics blue and international high jumper.[1]
The archaeologist
In his last school vacation (1923) Pendlebury travelled to Greece for the first time, he visited the excavations at
Mycenae and developed a love of Greece and deep interest in archaeology. On leaving university
in 1927 he won the Cambridge University scholarship to the British School of
Archaeology at Athens. Until then he had been unable to decide between Egyptian and Greek archaeology, he decided to do
both and studied Egyptian artifacts found in Greece. While in Athens he met another archaeology
student called Hilda White, they had a mutual attraction and married in 1928.
The climatic differences between Greece and Egypt made it possible to excavate in both countries each year and late in 1928
Pendlebury started excavating at Tell el-Amarna, in Egypt. In 1929 he was fortunate to be
appointed by Arthur Evans curator of the archaeological site at Knossos in central Crete. Doubly fortunate the job came with the Taverna, situated on the edge of the
site this house provided accommodation for married couple and a centre for social activities amongst the archaeologists.
Pendlebury was Director of Excavations at Tell el-Amarna from 1930 to 1936 and continued as Curator at Knossos until 1934.
From 1936 he directed excavations on Mount Dikti in eastern Crete and continued there until the
war was imminent.[2][3][4]
War service
Patrick Leigh Fermor said:
... [Pendlebury] got to know the island inside out. ... He spent days above the clouds and walked over 1,000 miles in a single
archaeological season. His companions were shepherds and mountain villagers. He knew all their dialects...". [5]
Manolaki Akoumianos, a Cretan and one of the workers at Knossos, said:
...[he] knew the whole island like his own hand, spoke Greek like a true Cretan, could make up mantinadas all night long, and could drink any Cretan under the table.[6]
Anticipating the coming war and strategic nature of Crete, Pendlebury eventually succeeded in convincing the British military
authorities of the value of his unique knowledge. They sent him back to England for military training, and in May 1940 he
returned to Heraklion (then called by its Italian/Venetian name - Candia) as British Vice Consul, but his job title did not hide from most of the
diplomatic community the nature of his duties. He immediately set-to working up his outline plans: improving the reconnaissance
(routes, hiding places, water sources and chiefly sounding out the local clan chiefs like Antonios Gregorakis and Manoli
Bandouvas. Turkey had relinquished control over Crete only 43 years before and these kapetanios would be the key to harnessing the Cretan
fighting spirit. In October, on Italy's attempted invasion of Greece, Pendlebury became liaison officer between British troops
and Cretan military authority.
By the time Germany had successfully occupied Greece in April 1941 Pendlebury had laid his plans, unfortunately they could not
include the Cretan division of the Greek army which was captured in Greece. The invasion of Crete started on 20 May 1941, Pendlebury was in the Heraklion area where it started with heavy
bombing followed by troops dropped by parachute. The enemy forced an entry into Heraklion but were driven out by regular Greek
and British troops and by islanders now armed with assorted weapons.
On 21 May 1941, when German troops took over Iraklion,
Pendlebury slipped away with his Cretan friends heading for Krousonas the village of
Kapetanios Satanas, which was some 15km to the southwest. They had the intention of launching a counter attack, but on the way
there Pendlebury left the vehicle to open fire on some German troops, who fired back. Some Stukas came over and Pendlebury was
shot in the chest. Aristeia Drossoulakis took him into her nearby cottage and he was laid on a bed. The cottage was overrun, a
German doctor treated him chivalrously, dressed his wounds, he was later given an injection.[7]
The next day Pendlebury had been changed into a clean shirt. The German were setting up a gun position nearby and a fresh
party of paratroopers came by. They found Pendlebury who had lost his identity discs and was wearing a Greek shirt. He could
prove that he was a soldier and he was out of uniform. He was put against a wall outside the cottage and shot through the head
and the body. [7]
He was buried nearby, later being reburied 1km outside the western gate of Heraklion. He now lies in the cemetery (Grave
reference 10.E.13) at Souda Bay maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Work by Pendlebury
- 1930 Aegyptiaca. A Catalogue of Egyptian objects in the Aegean area. Cambridge: University Press.
- 1933 A handbook to the palace of Minos at Knossos. London: Macmillan.
- 1933 A guide to the stratigraphical museum in the Palace at Knossos (3 vols). London: British School of Art
[?Archaeology] at Athens.
- 1935 Tell el-Amarna. London : Lovat Dickson & Thompson.
- 1939 The archaeology of Crete : an introduction. London: Methuen’s Handbooks of Archaeology.
- 1948 John Pendlebury in Crete. Cambridge: University Press. (Published privately after Pendlebury's death – with
appreciations by Nicholas Hammond and Tom
Dunbabin).
Further reading
- Imogen Grundon - The Rash Adventurer: The Life of John Pendlebury (London: Libri, 2007)
- Anthony Beevor - Crete, the Battle and the Resistance (includes info about Pendlebury's wartime exploits)
References
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: OUP. (2004)
- ^ Powell, Dilys. the Villa Ariadne. (1973), London: Hodder and
Stoughton, ISBN 0-340-17770-5.
- ^ Swansea University (Classics)
- ^ British School at
Athens
- ^ Leigh Fermor, Patrick. J Pendlebury and the Battle of Crete. The
Spectator p57-58. (20 October 2001) in Patrick Leigh Fermor (ed Artemis Cooper). Words of Mercury London: John
Murray. (2003) ISBN 0719561051
- ^ Quotation by
Alan Wace.
- ^ a b Nicholas Hammond, from
chapter "John Pendlebury" in John Pendlebury in Crete. Cambridge: University Press (1948).
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