Radford, Cecily

Obituary

Published in DA Transactions, 1968.

CECILY RADFORD, who died on the 31st March 1968 after a long illness, was a member of a family who have contributed greatly to the causes for which the Devonshire Association stands. She appears in our records as early as 1920 when she was elected a member of the first Committee for Ancient Monuments, and was joint recorder with her uncle, A. L. Radford and later with her cousin, Dr. C. A. Ralegh Radford, until 1950.

She was a most reliable historian and her contributions to the Transactions show not only a pleasant style of writing but evidence that she had made herself a master of her subject by diligent and informed research.

Among these contributions are articles on the early drama in Exeter, and its theatres, on an unrecorded visit to Exeter of Henry IV and Queen Joan of Navarre, on Richard Ford and his handbook for travellers in Spain; while perhaps the best of all her papers relates the extraordinary adventures of Joseph Pitts of Exeter, the first Englishman to visit Mecca and the first European to write an account of his adventures.

Miss Radford had been a member of the Association since 1919. She served on the Council from 1920 to 1965, and on the Editorial Panel from 1944 to 1954. She represented us on the Regional Council for British Archaeology from 1944 to 1952.

Papers published in DA’s Transactions

See also

• Emma Louisa, Lady Radford, President of the DA in 1928, her mother
• Ursula Radford, President in 1955, her sister