We are delighted to announce that Gary Brown has been jointly awarded the 2019-20 Ralph Merrifield Award for his contribution to London’s archaeology. At the LAMAS Conference on Saturday, the Chairman, Harvey Sheldon made the award jointly to Gary and to Nick Bateman, who recently retired from MoLA, for the huge amount of work they have done.
In presenting the award, Harvey said ‘In 1993 Gary set up Pre-Construct Archaeology, which soon became very prominent not only in London but also in other parts of the country, and today the organisation is well embedded in the archaeological life of the country. Gary put in a tremendous amount of effort to set it up and help it work very successfully, with it becoming increasingly well known not only for its investigations but also for its publications.’ He went on to congratulate Nick and Gary, saying ‘Ralph would have been very enthusiastic about both of you (winning the award)’.
Gary’s response on hearing the news was: ‘I was astonished, but it is of course a huge honour. I am particularly pleased that I am sharing the award with Nick, as we have always worked well together, in particular when PCA and MoLA worked jointly on the London Olympics sites, which in itself was a great achievement.’
We all send our congratulations to Gary and Nick, and wish them well as they step back from the forefront of archaeology in London.
