Agnes Ethel Conway

Agnes Ethel Conway (2 May 1885 – 1950), later Agnes Horsfield, was a British writer, historian and archaeologist who worked in the Middle East from 1929 to 1936. Perhaps best known for her excavations at Petra and Kilwa, she also produced publications on the history of Allington Castle, which had been owned by the Wyatt family in the 16th century.

Personal life

Agnes Conway was born in 1885 to William Martin Conway, who was, himself, an art historian, collector, explorer and politician, and Katrina Conway (née Lombard). She attended Baker Street High School and Kings College before becoming a student at Newnham College, Cambridge from 1903 - 1907.

After passing both parts of her History Tripos by 1907, Conway added to and catalogued her father's collection of photographs of objects, working with Eugenie Sellers Strong at the British School at Rome in 1912 on this project.

While working with him in Petra, Conway married George Horsfield, a fellow archaeologist, in St George's Cathedral in Jerusalem in January 1932. They lived together in Jerash until 1936, and then began to travel around the Mediterranean. Eventually, they returned to England and remained there until her death in 1950. She left her family papers to the medievalist and art historian Joan Evans, who eventually produced a volume on the family. These papers are now kept at the Cambridge University Library, having been presented by Evans in 1966.

Career

Although Conway predominantly studied Ancient History for a History Tripos at Newnham College, Cambridge, she also studied Greek under Jane Ellen Harrison, acclaimed classist and then Lecturer in Classical Archaeology at Newnham.