AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE LIFE OF A.D. PASSMORE 277 
Fig. 3 Letter to Reginald Smith, 5 September 1932 
Luckington; barrows at Ashbury (Oxon); and 
Nythe Farm, Wanborough. In the summer of 1934, 
Passmore went on a camping trip to Colchester, 
Burgh Castle, Norwich, Grimes Graves, 
Newmarket Dykes, Bartlow Hills and Whipsnade 
and visited Maiden Castle, Dorset. He also lectured 
during the winter months on various topics of an 
archaeological nature, for which he used visual aids 
drawn from his large collection of lantern slides. 
During World War II, Callas 
House was made into the head- 
quarters of the North East .- 
Wiltshire Home Guard (Passmore y 
ASH, May 4 1955), while Passmore’s  ~ 
monitoring of archaeology in 
Wiltshire was somewhat limited 
due to petrol restrictions (Figure 4). 
Towards the end of the 1940s, 
Passmore suffered health prob- 
lems, including trouble with his 
eyes. At times, his health 
deteriorated to the point that he 
required hospitalisation. In a letter 
to J.W. Brailsford, Passmore wrote 
of his ‘terror of blindness’ | 
(Passmore BM, Feb 19, 1949). 
Despite ill health, he privately 
published his account of the Roman Mees 
Road from Silchester to Caerleon, in 
which he proved the name of the 
Roman town of Wanborough to have been 
Durocornovium? (Passmore 1948). On 6 March 1948, 
he wrote in his field notebook of a small stone with 
an inscription that had been found recently at 
Theobalds Cottage, near Coate. This entry was 
written in large, shaky handwriting, ending with 
‘Written when nearly blind’ and underneath he 
later added ‘Can now see a bit A.D.P. 1957’ (ADP 
unpublished 1948, 151). 
Passmore continued to go to London even when 
suffering from angina. He seemed to have faced his 
health problems and impending old age with 
impatience mixed with humour and_ self- 
deprecation. In 1953 he wrote to R.J. Charleston at 
the Victoria and Albert Museum: 
Am sorry to have missed you at the Museum but as 
you know my one eye is none too good and I got 
mixed up in a maze of passages also was not in very 
good temper because I have to start from here at eight 
A.M. and in the darkness and hurry put on odd boots 
one brown and the other black, as I cannot see the 
ground it passed without notice tll I dropped my 
stick and saw the trouble and so departed much 
amused (Passmore V&A, January 9, 1953) 
To someone as independent and self-reliant as 
Passmore, it seems that having to be chaperoned on 
every outing was one of the more difficult 
adjustments that accompanied the impediments of 
old age. In 1954, Passmore wrote to Donald Harden 
at the Ashmolean Museum: 
Fig. 4 Letter to J.W. Brailsford, 18 May 1953 
