Richard MacGillivray Dawkins

Richard MacGillivray Dawkins (24 October 1871 – 4 May 1955) was a British archaeologist. He was associated with the British School at Athens (BSA), of which he was Director between 1906 and 1913.

Early life Richard MacGillivray Dawkins was the son of the Royal Navy officer Rear-Admiral Richard Dawkins of Stoke Gabriel and his wife Mary Louisa McGillivray, only surviving daughter of Simon McGillivray. He was educated at Marlborough College and at King's College, London where he trained as an electrical engineer.

Academic career He took part in the BSA's excavations at Palaikastro, and the survey of Lakonia (see Artemis Orthia and Menelaion, Sparta); also at Rhitsona. He undertook linguistic fieldwork in Cappadocia from 1909 to 1911, which resulted in a basic work on Cappadocian Greek. Then, he led a dig at Phylakopi from 1911.

Dawkins was a fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He was director of the British School at Athens from 1906 to 1913. In December 1919, he was elected the first Bywater Professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek Language and Literature in the University of Oxford. In 1922, he became a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. Between 1928 and 1930, Dawkins served as president of the Folklore Society, and in his later life published three considerable collections of Greek folk tales.

In 1907, Dawkins inherited the Plas Dulas estate in Llanddulas, Conwy, north Wales from a first cousin. There, he experimented with plant importation and cultivation. He also displayed archaeological antiquities within the garden. Visitors included Noël Coward and Evelyn Waugh.

Works Modern Greek in Asia Minor (1916) The Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta (1929) The Cypriot Chronicle of Makhairas (1932) The Monks of Athos (1936) Forty-Five Stories from the Dodecanese (1950) Arabian Nights Norman Douglas (G. Orioli, 1933 [Lungarno series], revised 1952) Modern Greek Folktales (1953) More Greek Folktales (1955) More Stories from the Arabian Nights (1957)