Terence Mitford

Terence Bruce Mitford, (sometimes known as Terence Bruce-Mitford) (11 May 1905 – 8 November 1978) was a Scottish archaeologist and classicist. He spent his whole career at the University of St Andrews, and had a special interest in the history and archaeology of Cyprus and southern Turkey, making many expeditions to these areas. His academic life was interrupted by the Second World War, during which he served with the Special Air Service and Special Boat Service.

Biography Mitford was born in Yokohama, Japan. His father was Charles Eustace Bruce Mitford, and Mitford's name was sometimes given as "Bruce-Mitford". Transferred to the Special Operations Executive in June 1940, he was involved with John Pendlebury in establishing a resistance organisation in Crete, and during the Battle of Crete organised the defence of Rethymno airfield against the German parachutists. Escaping when the island fell, he set up the SOE station in Aleppo, recruited a band of convicted murderers, Kurds and Armenians, and organised SOE work for eastern Turkey, where they were to form a resistance force. But the German advance stalled in the Caucasus. Redeploying his Kalpaks into the Special Air Service, After the war, he returned to St Andrews (where he was attached to the Officer Training Corps ) and resumed his archaeological explorations in Cyprus. He was promoted to major on 1 April 1948, and nominally transferred to the Intelligence Corps. In his later career, he also looked at the archaeology and epigraphy of southern Turkey, making many expeditions there. He found many previously unknown inscriptions, assisting the work of the Austrian Academy of Sciences's Committee for the Archaeological Exploration of Asia Minor. His explorations were aided by his physical stamina, his resilience and his fluency in Greek and Turkish.