William Charles Brice (3 July 1921 – 24 July 2007) was a British

ethnographer Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

and

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...

Biography

Brice was born in

Richmond, Yorkshire Richmond is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, and the administrative centre of the district of Richmondshire. Historically in the North Riding of Yorkshire, it is from the county town of Northallerton and situated on t ...

, and studied geography at

Jesus College, Oxford Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship ...

, interrupting his studies to serve in India during the Second World War, protecting railways near

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

and supplying maps to troops, for which he was awarded the

Burma Star The Burma Star is a military campaign medal, instituted by the United Kingdom in May 1945 for award to British and Commonwealth forces who served in the Burma Campaign from 1941 to 1945, during the Second World War. One clasp, Pacific, was ...

. He then participated in an archaeological expedition to eastern Turkey, exploring frontier forts of the Roman empire. He was appointed lecturer in geography at

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

in 1947, returning to Oxford in 1951 as assistant curator and lecturer in ethnology at the

Pitt Rivers Museum Pitt Rivers Museum is a museum displaying the archaeological and anthropological collections of the University of Oxford in England. The museum is located to the east of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and can only be accessed ...

. Sir John Myres gave him the task of working on

Linear A Linear A is a writing system that was used by the Minoans of Crete from 1800 to 1450 BC to write the hypothesized Minoan language or languages. Linear A was the primary script used in palace and religious writings of the Minoan civi ...

, and his breakthroughs were recorded in ''Inscriptions in the Minoan Linear Script of Class A'' (1961). In 1967 he was appointed as the editor of the journal ''Kadmos'', which focused on prealphabetic writing and the languages and cultures from which they came. His works include ''An Historical Atlas of Islam'' (1981), ''The Mediterranean Sea Atlas'' (2003), translated from a 16th-century

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

manuscript. and ''South-west Asia'' (A Systematic Regional Geography; vol. 8), University of London Press, 1966. He was also responsible for the 8th, 9th and 10th editions of Walter Fitzgerald's ''Africa'' (1955, 1961 & 1967).

References

1921 births 2007 deaths Ethnographers Linguists from the United Kingdom Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford Academics of the University of Oxford Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester People associated with the Pitt Rivers Museum 20th-century linguists {{ethnographer-stub