OBITUARIES 



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computerized Wiltshire sites and monuments 

 record, contributed to planning policy documents, 

 mounted exhibitions, and employed her 

 considerable negotiating skills on hapless planners, 

 developers, and road engineers. It was during these 

 years too that, with her Trowbridge neighbour Cyril 

 Jones, she hatched the idea of residential courses 

 on archaeology for the visually handicapped. The 

 concept was taken up by Mick Aston at Bristol 

 University, and has subsequently ramified, and 

 enriched many lives. 



In 1986 she decided to leave the relative security 

 of local government and embark on a freelance 

 career. She became an archaeological consultant, 

 liaising between planners, developers, local 

 authority archaeologists and excavation units. There 

 are many such consultants now, but fifteen years 

 ago this was a pioneering new direction to move in, 

 and she demonstrated not only what a valuable 

 function such people could perform, but also how 

 superbly good she was at it. Unswervingly her first 

 loyalty was to the archaeology itself, and she would 

 defend it with all the vehemence at her disposal. 

 Her work ranged far beyond Wiltshire, to Essex and 

 Kent, the midlands, London, the west country, and 

 into Wales where, near Magor on the Gwent Levels, 

 she was instrumental in arranging for the recovery 

 of a Roman boat discovered during the building of 

 a supermarket warehouse. Among the hundreds of 

 projects with which she was involved were 

 supermarkets, housing estates and road schemes, 

 and some important large-scale surveys, especially 



in Hampshire. Her papers as a consultant have now 

 been deposited as a business archive in the Wiltshire 

 and Swindon Record Office. 



Away from her business she served on this 

 Society's council from 1993 to 1997, and played 

 an influential role in developing its policy. She was 

 also a committee member and sometime newsletter 

 editor of the Wessex regional group of the Council 

 for British Archaeology, and active in many local 

 societies. Each year she organized a coach outing 

 (the President's outing) for the Box Archaeological 

 and Natural History Society, and they were always 

 memorable and fun. 



Despite poor health (diabetes dogged her from 

 teenage) Alison was a tireless achiever, and always 

 exhilarating and hilarious company, sociable and 

 larger than life. But her bubbly exterior belied a 

 deep, thoughtful and caring humanity. On many 

 issues she held the strongest beliefs and campaigned 

 tirelessly, enduring hostility from opponents and 

 long nights tapping away at her computer. She was 

 absolutely sincere and loyal. Her care and love for 

 her parents and family, especially for her mother 

 during the dark months of her father's final illness, 

 was unstinting. 



She married in 1986 John Chandler, and they 

 lived first at Gastard and from 1991 at East Knoyle, 

 where she was to make many close friendships. 

 Among many other village activities she created a 

 pictorial map of East Knoyle in 1994 in aid of the 

 church (she was a talented artist). She and John 

 separated in 1998 but Alison continued to live in 

 the village, in the converted Sunday School where 

 she also carried on her consultancy. It was there 

 that she died, aged 49, the result of diabetic coma. 

 She is buried in East Knoyle churchyard extension. 

 She had no children, and is succeeded by her 

 mother, brother, one nephew and one niece. 



JOHN CHANDLER 



Graham Webster, archaeologist and authority on 

 Roman Britain and the Roman army, died at 

 Swindon 2 1 May 200 1 . He was born 3 1 May 1913. 

 Dr Graham Webster was the best loved, and 

 probably the greatest, scholar in post-war Romano- 

 British archaeology. Born at Stamford, 

 Lincolnshire, he was educated at Stamford School 

 where his life-long interest in antiquity began. 

 However he trained after school as a civil engineer 

 acquiring a rigorous practical discipline which was 

 of the greatest use as he became involved in 



