21 Facts About John Beazley

Sir John Davidson Beazley was a British classical archaeologist and art historian, known for his classification of Attic vases by artistic style.

John Beazley was professor of classical archaeology and art at the University of Oxford from 1925 to 1956.

John Beazley was educated at King Edward VI School, Southampton and Christ's Hospital, Sussex.

John Beazley then attended Balliol College, Oxford where he read Literae Humaniores: he received firsts in both Mods and Greats.

John Beazley won the Gaisford Prize in Greek composition for "Herodotus at the Zoo", a parody of Herodotus in which the historian visits London Zoo.

John Beazley graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1907.

John Beazley was a keen poet in his youth but abandoned it as his scholarly pursuits begun to take up all his time.

John Beazley then returned to the University of Oxford as a student and tutor in Classics at Christ Church.

John Beazley held the temporary rank of second lieutenant from March to October 1916 when he was on secondment to the British Army.

John Beazley specialised in Greek decorated pottery, and became a world authority on the subject.

John Beazley retired in 1956, but continued to work until his death in Oxford, on 6 May 1970.

John Beazley was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy in 1927.

John Beazley was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1943.

John Beazley was appointed a Knight Bachelor in 1949, and therefore granted the title sir.

John Beazley was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour in the 1959 New Year Honours "for services to scholarship".

In 1919, Beazley married a widow, Marie Ezra, whose first husband had been killed in World War I In their early years together, the pair kept a goose in Christ Church, which Marie would take out for exercise in Tom Quad.

John Beazley had no children with Marie, though John Beazley had a stepdaughter from Marie's previous marriage, Giovanna Marie Therese Babette "Mary" Ezra.

John Beazley had great charm, and could be an amusing and delightful companion; but as he grew older his total deafness and his increasing absorption in his work combined to cut him off to some degree from other people.

John Beazley was modest, and took immense trouble with the guidance of his pupils, treating them as equals and winning their devoted affection.

John Beazley was completely generous in communicating his knowledge, not only to these but to all who consulted him, as in increasing numbers scholars, collectors, and dealers constantly did.

John Beazley was never professionally painted, but his wife, a talented untaught artist, drew several heads of him in coloured chalks which are preserved in Oxford, at Balliol, Christ Church, and Lincoln.