John Chadwick (21 May 1920 - 24 November 1998) was a British linguist and classical scholar most famous for his role in deciphering Linear B along with Michael Ventris.
He was born in London and educated at St Paul's School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge serving as an officer the Royal Navy's special Branch during the Second World War.
After the war he married and worked on the staff of the Oxford Classical Dictionary and then held a Classics lectureship at Cambridge from 1952. That same year he began working with Ventris on the progressive decipherment of Linear B, the two writing Documents in Mycenean Greek in 1956 following a controversial first paper three years earlier. Chadwick's philological skills were applied to Ventris' initial theory that Linear B was an early form of Greek rather than another Mediterranean language.
After Ventris' death Chadwick became the sole figurehead of the Linear B work, writing the accessible popular book The Decipherment of Linear B in 1958 and revising Documents in Mycenean Greek in 1978.
He retired in 1984 by which time he had become the Perceval Maitland Laurence Reader in Classics at Cambridge. He continued his academic work until his death however, being an active member of several prestigious international societies and also writing numerous popular and academic articles.
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Last updated: 10-12-2005 12:18:05
