John Chadwick

John Chadwick (May 21, 1920 - November 24, 1998) was an English professor of classical philology and a collaborator with Michael Ventris in the decipherment of Linear B. He was born in London and studied at the University of Cambridge. During World War II, he served in a special unit of the Navy. After the war, he worked on the editorial team of the Oxford Classical Dictionary and, from 1952, taught classical philology at Cambridge. His expertise in classical philology assisted Michael Ventris in deciphering the Mycenaean Greek script Linear B, which was found on tablets in Greece and, until then, the language it represented was unknown. After Ventris's death, Chadwick became the leading figure in the decipherment of Linear B, authoring the book "The Decipherment of Linear B" in 1958 and revising "Documents in Mycenaean Greek" in 1978. He was named an honorary professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Athens and was awarded the Perceval Maitland Laurence Reader in Classics chair at Cambridge. He retired in 1984 but continued his academic contributions until his death.