Laurence P. Kirwan
Sir Archibald Laurence "Larry" Patrick Kirwan KCMG was a British archaeologist and geographer who made major contributions to the study of ancient Egypt, Nubia, East Africa and South Arabia. The Guardian, in his obituary, calls him "one of the last survivors of the heroic age of archaeology". As Director and Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society from 1945 until 1975, he helped organize the first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953.
Born in Cork, Ireland, Kirwan studied at Oxford University but left without a degree. He served as assistant director of the Egyptian government's Archaeological Survey of Nubia from 1929 to 1934 and then as field director of Oxford University's expeditions to Nubia between 1934 and 1937. From 1937 until 1939 he held a fellowship at Edinburgh University and did fieldwork in the Sudan and Aden. With the onset of the Second World War, he became a reserve officer in the Territorial Army, but in 1942 he became a staff officer attached to the Ministry of Defence. After the war, Kirwan took the reins of the Royal Geographical Society. Concurrently from 1961 to 1981 he was President of the British Institute in Eastern Africa.
In 1958, Kirwan was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, which was raised to Knight Commander in 1972. His first marriage, to Joan Chetwynd in 1932, ended in divorce. The couple had one daughter. In 1949, he married Stella Monck. He died in a hospice in London at the age of 91.
