Ray Inskeep

Ray, who lived in Walton Street, died from cancer in August aged 76. Ray was born in Brighton and left school at the age of 14. He initially worked in a gentleman’s outfitters, but after the war trained as a teacher. He had, however, developed an interest in archaeology and eventually studied the subject at St. John’s College, Cambridge. Having been invited to carry out excavations in what was then Tanganyika, he was drawn to work more in Africa, and took charge of archaeology at the University of Cape Town. Eventually, disenchanted with the politics of the apartheid era, in 1972 he came to Oxford as assistant curator at the Pitt Rivers museum. Subsequently he became a university lecturer and a fellow of Merton College and wrote a series of books on Southern Africa. During this time he took a great interest in local politics and in community activities and became chair of the Jericho Residents’ Association. Ray is survived by his wife Adi, to whom we extend our sympathy.