Joscelyn Plunket Bushe-Fox
Joscelyn Plunket Bushe-Fox, known as J.P. Bushe-Fox, was a British archaeologist, civil servant, and army officer who lived from 7 July 1880 to 15 October 1954. He was born in Hampstead, Middlesex, the youngest child of Luke Loftus Bushe Fox and Mary Ann Bushe Fox. The family name later became Bushe-Fox. He attended St Paul’s School in London, did not go to university, and worked in a bank after school.
In 1910 he contracted tuberculosis and went to Egypt to recover, where he worked with the archaeologist Flinders Petrie. He then helped excavate the Roman site Corstopitum (Corbridge) in Northumberland and contributed to the 1911 report.
He directed excavations for the Society of Antiquaries of London at Hengistbury Head (1911–12; published 1915) and at Wroxeter, a Roman site in Shropshire (three seasons between 1912 and 1915; reports published 1913–1916).
When World War I began, Bushe-Fox joined the British Army. He served in the Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries, was promoted to acting captain in 1917, and left in 1920 with the rank of Major.
After the war he joined the Office of Works as Inspector of Ancient Monuments (1920) and later became Chief Inspector (1933–1945). He continued directing excavations for the Society of Antiquaries. In 1921 he led an Iron Age cemetery excavation at Swarling near Canterbury; the report appeared in 1925. In 1922 he began excavations at the Roman fort of Richborough in Kent, which continued until 1938 with several published volumes. A serious accident in 1931 when a trench collapsed at Colchester affected his health and delayed some work; a fourth volume was published in 1949, and a final fifth report appeared in 1968.
Bushe-Fox served on the Society of Antiquaries’ Council in the 1920s and 1930s and remained active on its Research Committee. He married Cicely Catherine Agnes Pratt in 1939.
He died on 15 October 1954 at Horton Hospital in Epsom, Surrey.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 18:30 (CET).